NEW YORK— Buried underneath the developments, acquisitions, renovations and management contracts that Waterford Hotel Group, Inc. handles as it grows its presence as an owner and operator in the hotel industry are the not-so-minute details that make the firm’s hotels functional. Located at the core of the hotel business, these details are the very products that get slept in, swept, turned on or consumed on a daily basis by both guests and hotel staff members. Consequently, as every owner and general manager knows, they are always in need of constant replacement. At the annual International Hotel/ Motel & Restaurant Show at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center here, all of these products are available. During Waterford’s shopping excursion this year, HOTEL BUSINESS® tagged along to find out what the Waterford, CT-based company is looking for as it grows its portfolio of 26 hotels. Leading Waterford’s purchasing process were Terrence Bickhardt, the company’s president and COO; and Julie Jacques, Waterford’s director of technical services. The pair began their trip with a focus on buying new televisions, which they said they will need for some of Waterford’s upcoming hotel renovation and new construction projects. They need to buy flat-panel TVs for their Marriott properties, in particular, since Marriott is making flat-panel TVs standard in all its properties. Bickhardt and Jacques wanted to visit Petters Group Worldwide’s booth first, where they could check out the company’s line of Polaroid TVs. Prior to the walk-around, they noticed that some of the Polaroid TVs had DVD players already embedded, which was a feature that they liked. “We have high-definition TVs now in our hotels’ public spaces, but if we’re opening a property in 2009, for example, it might behoove us to upgrade now because even select-service properties will one day soon have HDTVs,” Bickhardt noted. Jacques quickly added, though, that “pricing is a big factor in purchasing TVs, of course.” In speaking with Petters Group’s director of product management, Steve Hollington, Bickhardt inquired about the usefulness of certain TV screen sizes in guestrooms and public areas. Jacques also pointed out that the embedded DVD player option would work well for extended-stay hotels. Hollington said the embedded DVD players provide an element of cost-effectiveness. Bickhardt then asked about the availability of so-called “jack packs” in which guests can plug their MP3 players, laptops and other portable media devices into for use in the guestroom. Polaroid had a “jack pack” model on hand to show how it can be used in tandem with a TV. Jacques noted that the jack pack is also becoming a standard for Marriott. “Marriott wants the jack pack in a panel format, but I would like to see it embedded in the TV itself,” Bickhardt mentioned. Later on, both Bickhardt and Jacques agreed that in the case of Polaroid, having such a branded TV in the guestroom would add a consumer comfort factor because of the familiarity of the Polaroid name. They also explained that they are looking to buy about 350 to 400 flat-panel TVs to start for such projects as the upcoming renovation of the Mystic Marriott Hotel & Spa in Mystic, CT. Initially, Waterford will install flat-panel TVs in about 25% of the rooms and take it further from that point, they said, adding other projects in the pipeline, such as a few Courtyards, will soon require the installation of new TVs as well. Jacques wanted to continue the perusal of TV models at other manufacturers’ booths, but the sheer volume of potential customers at such booths as Sharp Electronics Corp. made them delay those trips for the time being. As a result, the pair of executives moved on to the realm of fitness equipment and the Precor Inc. booth in particular. “We have to replace our fitness equipment, and especially treadmills and cardio machines, quite often in our hotels,” Jacques noted. In the case of the renovation of the Mystic Mar
