Hotel Chains Test Internet TV

<H1> Hotel Chains Test Internet TV</H1>By Linda Humphrey

The hotel television is set to take on new roles next year as chains test Internet, fax, e-mail and interactive-menu hookups.

In-room Internets are on tap at nearly every major chain, although most won't break past the test phase for another two years, said Scott Lewis, chief executive of Fourth Communications Network Inc., a Silicon Valley firm whose clients include Embassy Suites, Hilton, Marriott, Omni, Radisson and Sheraton hotels.

Fourth Network plans to launch guest-room Internets "on a large scale" next year, either via the TV or a computer, Lewis said. Several hotels, including those flying Holiday Inn, Embassy Suites, Marriott and Hilton flags, already have kicked off the company's Internet access in business centers, Lewis said.

Holiday Inn recently launched the industry's first Internet-via-TV test in executive floor rooms and lobbies of three Georgia hotels. Promus Hotels and Hong Kong's Kowloon Hotel plan to add the concept by year's end, and Hyatts in Hong Kong and Paris plan to follow suit in two to three years. Surfing will cost about $5 to $8 an hour, the chains said, although Holiday's test screens are on the house.

Because televisions lack keyboards and mice, the concept of Internet access over TV still is, for the most part, "something a lot of people are whispering about in back rooms," said Sheraton's Mark Haley, division manager of hotel systems. Initial tests will use the hand-held remote as the pointer.

As the in-room Net gains momentum and appliances, serious surfers will flip through dozens of international newspapers with their morning coffee, order a shirt for tomorrow's meeting and even pick up their e-mail over the TV screen, said Promus chief information officer Tim Harvey. Hong Kong's Kowloon Hotel-which already has ushered in TV-computer hybrids-complete with keyboard-in all rooms, will launch e-mail access over TV screens later this year.

Incoming faxes and voicemail will soon show up over the TV as well, as the Fourth Network launches beta tests for both concepts at the Countryside Inn & Suites in Newport Beach, Calif. Guests view a list of voicemail messages and may opt to sort them by listening to a five-second preview of each. Choosing a message yields a tape recorder icon, which guests may pause and rewind. A "fax mail" light indicates an incoming fax, which then appears on the screen, and guests can print out the fax at the front desk. In-room fax printers are on the Fourth Networks' drawing board as well.

Printer hookups for in-room video checkout, a concept launched by Sheraton earlier this year, also are in the works at many chains, including Delta and Promus. "Travelers need that receipt in hand," said Sheraton spokeswoman Lisa Dickason. Printing Internet pages from the television, however, "is doable but very expensive," said Sheraton's Haley.

Chains also are devising interactive information channels. Earlier this month, Delta Hotels launched a menu-driven screen that spotlights the chain's properties, guest recognition program and other promotions, said Scott Allison, Delta's vice president of marketing.

Hyatt International plans to launch the Hyatt Video Network-featuring tours of all Hyatt hotels, regional attractions, online shopping and movies on demand-to all properties by December 1997, according to John Wallis, vice president of sales and marketing for Hyatt International Hotels. Currently beta testing at the Hyatt Regency Roissy, near the Paris airport, the network was devised with Singapore-based IPCI GuestServe and California-based MagiNet.

A handful of Chicago and Washington, D.C.-area hotels now feature an interactive Yellow Pages-type service, launched last summer by InfoTravel (<I>BTN</I>, June 24). Featuring menus for nightlife, places to eat, getting around, shopping and things to see and do, the free service also prints out customized maps. InfoTravel plans to equip New York and San Francisco next, said Tom Pelletreau, director of new business development for Bell Atlantic Electronic Publishing.

Eventually, most hotel interactive networks, such as shopping networks, will blend into the in-room Internet, Lewis said. "Over the next 12 months, you'll be seeing a whole new set of services lead by the Internet," Lewis said. His company will announce a financial news program later this year.

The next step in movies will digitally encode the film onto a computer disk, enabling travelers to pause the action for phone calls or backtrack to a missed scene, Haley said. On-demand video uses an array of videocassette recorders, which limits the number of guests who can watch the same movie at different times. With one copy spinning around on computer disk, however, every guest in the hotel could tune into the same movie at different times. While several cruise lines have installed digitized film, the obstacle for hotels, Haley said, is a steep price tag.