NATIONAL REPORT— There is no argument that high-speed Internet access for guests is now a must have for any hotel property catering to the business traveler. However, many hoteliers— from large brands to small owners— are proactively deciding to take it one step further and deploy full wireless HSIA, not only in their public spaces but in all their guestrooms as well. The main reasons are that wireless technology has come a long way in the past year with improved service, security and most importantly, user acceptance, hotel executives said. In fact, technology giant Intel Corp. has publicly stated that it expects 90% of all laptop computers shipped this year will already have wireless capabilities. As a result, hoteliers are seeing a chance to be on the cutting edge of technology for a change and offer guests a service that they are growing accustomed to. And to retrofit those road warriors with laptops that do not have wireless access capabilities built in, hotels are stocking up on access bridges or adaptors that can be easily plugged into their machines. Take Mike Henningsen, director/hotel operations at the Plamondon Companies, who decided to install wireless Internet access in all three of the company’s hotels— a Residence Inn, Courtyard and Fairfield— instead of a hard-wired solution. “Marriott said Courtyard and Residence must have HSIA by the end of the year, either wired or wireless,” Henningsen said. “So when we looked at the buildings and thought about what the customer is looking for, we chose to adopt a wireless solution for all three properties,” he said, adding that STSN did the entire installation. Because all three properties are situated near one another in an office park, Plamondon was able to bring one T1 line into the Residence Inn, set up the appropriate dishes and then beam the broadband service signal over to the other two properties, Henningsen said. The installation was done during the week of Thanksgiving for all rooms of the combined properties, he said, adding that none of these hotels are charging for the service. Similarly, the Holiday Inn in Sioux Falls, SD, was recently outfitted with wireless HSIA in all of its guestrooms, according to Tammy Beintema, the property’s gm. The property was previously offering some Internet access through guestroom TVs via LodgeNet, but was seeing such a spike in wireless requests that it decided to add the service as well, she said. “Wireless was the best route for us. It required very little wiring with the installation of just a few access points. We were able to give the guests what they needed without a lot of changes to the existing building,” Beintema said, adding LodgeNet is still the service provider. “The demand is definitely there for wireless HSIA,” she said. In fact, on an average night, 8% to 10% of the hotel’s guests are using the service, she said. On a larger scale, while many hotel brands have issued some sort of mandate requiring their hotel owners to install HSIA in guestrooms by a certain time, some brands such as Microtel Inns & Suites, Hilton Garden Inn, Wingate and Woodfield Suites— to name a few— have gone as far as to dictate that there must be wireless service at their properties. Having recently completed the installation of HSIA in all of its more than 180 properties, Hilton Garden Inn is now focusing its attention on providing its largely business clientele with wireless capabilities. According to Adrian Kurre, senior vp/brand management for Hilton Garden Inn— who revealed that the entire chain will offer wireless HSIA by 2006— the decision to move in the direction of wireless is all about flexibility. “The future of the Internet is in choices. There are a certain number of people who want a modem, [those who want]hard wired and [those who want]wireless. In the long term, we want to have all three available,” he said. Hilton Garden Inn will make the amenity optional for its franchisees up until 2006, at which time it
