Vendor Provides Hotels With Smart Room Mgm't

<B> Vendor Provides Hotels With Smart Room Mgm't</B>

By Maria P. Vallejo

<I>Los Angeles</I> - Copicard Systems Co., known for its presence on college campuses, has entered the hospitality industry with its launch of a new hotel "smart room" product at the Hospitality Industry Technology Exposition and Conference here last week.

Dallas-based CSI is providing hotel rooms with printers and computers that come complete with customized software programs and hotel information using Copicard's chip-card access. These rooms may give hotel chains the opportunity to roll out new lines of smart rooms, previously considered unaffordable.

Hotels that partner with CSI receive computer and printer installation in return for a monthly charge of between $150 and $250 per room, which includes remote information technology management.

So far, a franchiser owning the Sheraton Dallas-airport hotel and its neighboring new Sheraton all-suite hotel will install the smart rooms within a month. The airport hotel will convert between 25 and 50 hotel rooms, while its sister hotel will build all its suites as smart rooms, CSI vice president Robert Searles said. A franchised Los Angeles airport Crowne Plaza also has signed a deal.

In addition, Patriot American Hospitality Worldwide and Hilton Hotels Corp. are currently considering installing the product on a test basis, Searles said. "We've confined our efforts to the Dallas area right now, but Patriot American will let us grow," Searles said.

<B>Smart Room Pricing</B>

Once the smart rooms are installed, individual hotels determine the rate they want to charge guests for technology access, so they have the opportunity to determine their own revenue streams. CSI officials recommend charging a $5 to $10 premium per night to offset the monthly CSI fee, and then charging additional costs for computer usage time and pages printed.

Upon arrival at a hotel with the CSI system, guests receive either a separate Copicard or a two-in-one room key/Copicard to activate the equipment and calculate the billing charges. To access the computer system, guests insert the cards into a reader. The cards immediately are deactivated when guests check out of the hotel, in much the same way their access-key cards are, and CSI charges are listed on their hotel folios.

The computers provide Internet and e-mail access, basic office programs, guest folio data, hotel property information and incoming/outgoing facsimile capabilities. Hotels can customize the screens to include direct access to business information, such as stock market or headline news. Properties can choose among several computer models, such as IBM, Compaq and Macintosh, and software programs. CSI will replace computers with the newest models every three years, and hotels can request program upgrades at any time. "Everybody has different marketplaces," Searles said. "We even have bilingual services."

Following the recommendations of travel buyers, who complained about high bills incurred by travelers who forgot to log off the computers after working, the system now automatically saves the current work and shuts itself off after 15 minutes of idle time, Searles said.

The product also is ideal for hotels that are not equipped with their own IS staff, because technical support is provided by CSI at no additional charge. A 10 percent additional inventory is given to the hotel for emergency hardware replacements in case of technical problems, and the system can be remotely accessed from CSI's Dallas headquarters. Next day on-site system support also is available.

CSI is partnering with major technology companies--including Compaq, Dell, Hewlett Packard and IBM--to provide computer hardware and software. Copicard currently buys several thousand computers and technology products per month from these companies for a similar service it offers to universities and Fortune 500 companies.

"We are already doing this same application in college centers," Searles said.