In-Room Amenities Redefine Business Centers

<H1>In-Room Amenities Redefine Business Centers</H1><H2>Westin Biz Class: Scaled-down office equipment</H2><H3>By Lynn Woods</H3>With more and more business travelers toting laptops and other types of equipment, in-room dataports and hotel business services are becoming more important to corporate travel managers. As a result, buyers are paying more attention to the costs of services such as printing, faxing and photocopying, and a few are even beginning to address these costs in their travel policies.

"In the last three months, companies are starting to be aware of all these little costs adding up," said Kim Lewis, vice president of consulting services at American Express Travel Management Services in New York. "I spoke recently to clients in Boston who want to address policy changes they should make because of this new type of traveler."

Companies have long been aware of exorbitant surcharges on in-room phones, and many have instituted calling-card programs, enabling employees to avoid fees by making an 800 call to access a preferred long-distance carrier. But attention to business-service charges is a recent development.

Lewis said one client recently added a section on business centers in its policy, advising employees "to be sensitive" to the charges. Employees who need to print out a document from their laptop and then make copies are instructed to print out one copy from their laptop and make photocopies rather than making copies from the printer, which is subject to much higher fees.

Other areas for which companies are writing guidelines are overnight mail service, in-flight phones and rental of cell phones from car-rental companies.

"Almost every company is shocked at what happens to their expenses because of rental car phones," said Rolfe Shellenberger, a senior consultant at Runzheimer International, based in Rochester, Wis. "They're asking questions as to whether it's a good investment for people to have car phones or portable phones."

Yet another cost corporate travel managers are evaluating is the $15 to $20 surcharge on business-class rooms. Introduced by a number of chains under different brand names, including Westin's Guest Office, Hilton's SmartDesk and Radisson's Business Class, these rooms come equipped with a fax machine and in some cases a printer and photocopier; free local phone calls may be thrown in as well. But "some companies won't pay for an upgrade to a business-class room," according to Lewis, adding that other corporations write into their policy who qualifies for the upgrades and who doesn't.

However, Susan Stowe, senior consultant at Caldwell Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based travel management consultancy, said she's observed the opposite trend. "Business travelers are looking for dataports in their room rather than using the business center," she said. "People will book a business-class room with a fax machine after getting burned once" at the business center, she said.

One company that is taking a closer look at these costs is Allied Signal, which spends $206 million annually on travel. The majority of the company's traveling employees carry laptops and use e-mail. The company works with 254 domestic properties, and because Allied holds so many meetings, the hotels are required to have a business center, dataports in the rooms, a gym and free transfer from the airport, according to Maxine Wiggs, manager of Allied's hotel program.

If a property charges a fee for accessing 800 numbers, Allied tries to have the fee waived in its negotiations, as well as get discounts on services at the business center. Travelers are discouraged from making in-flight calls, and in some cases, the company has traded down to moderate-priced properties. "Not everyone needs a full-service hotel with extra amenities," Wiggs said.

More common than rewriting travel policy is to negotiate business charges into the corporate rate. Runzheimer International said 40 percent of companies surveyed in March 1995 had either waived charges for use of hotel facilities or negotiated discounts, compared with 38 percent in November 1993. Thirty-one percent had negotiated in-room amenities into the rate, compared with 28 percent in 1993.

The corporate travel manager at one large New York financial firm said she was attempting to negotiate valet services and in-room phone surcharges-"the two highest charges"-into the rate. And Tara Walsh, a consultant who negotiates on behalf of another New York financial company, Goldman Sachs, said she had early-departure fees waived at Westin hotels.

One of the problems in addressing these costs is the difficulty in quantifying them. Corporate-card expense reports typically break out the room nights, but because they only show a total charge, it's very difficult to determine the surcharges, Wiggs noted. But anecdotal evidence suggests the costs can be significant-as well as unnecessary. When checking out of a hotel recently, Stowe was stunned to discover a $75 charge for an incoming fax. "My secretary had sent me a 20-page fax three times, thinking it hadn't gone through," she explained.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that such charges vary widely from property to property. The San Francisco Marriott, for example, charges $1 a page for outgoing domestic faxes, 15 cents for a photocopy and $20 per hour for a PC rental. In contrast, the Sheraton New York charges $5 per page for a domestic fax, 25 cents for a photocopy and $35 an hour for rental of an IBM or Macintosh. Some chains have reined in a few of the charges in response to customer complaints. Marriott, Hilton and ITT Sheraton, for instance, have eliminated surcharges on 800 numbers and collect calls made from the room.

Meanwhile, as in-room business amenities become more widely available, hotels are redefining the business center, in some cases keeping it open 24 hours a day and expanding the types of services to better meet the needs of convention groups. "You need bantam-weight corporate equipment in the room and heavyweight equipment in the business center," said Marc Pujalet, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Westin Hotels in Seattle.

For instance, a business center opening May 1 at the Hotel Inter-Continental in New York will be staffed by a telecommunications manager who will oversee e-mail and Internet services. Equipment will include CD-ROM computers, color disks and a wide selection of software.

"We've approached our new business center as an added value to our customers," said director of marketing Mike Fiorentino. "After the first year, we want to develop enough interest to break even, but if it costs us a little bit more but the guest feedback is great, we'll incur the cost."

Other properties are outsourcing their business centers in an effort to provide better service and cut costs (BTN, Dec. 11, 1995). For a little over a year, the center at the San Francisco Hilton and Towers has been operated by the Images Division of Office Depot, the office retailer's first foray into hotel business centers. The company has upgraded the software, provided access to the Internet and hired a graphics design person, said David Schofield, vice president and general manager at the Images Division in Delray Beach, Fla. Images also offers a variety of printing services, including a digital color copier.

When a meeting is scheduled at the hotel, the management sends out a letter in advance outlining the center's services to the group administrator, who frequently will overnight a disk or document so that the center can have copies ready and waiting when the group arrives.

Photocopies at the San Francisco Hilton cost between 12 cents and 15 cents, depending on the quantity, which is below what most hotel business centers charge.