Hotel & Motel Management - January 19, 2009 - (Page 40)

H&MM January 19, 2009 | HotelMotel.com 40 Hotel Operations TELEVISIONS “Not everyone is comfortable putting a full-sized cable box in a room.” ANTHONY FONZO, SR. MARKETING MGR., PHILIPS BRIEFS Castle Hill Inn and Resort in Newport, R.I., is offering packages for cash-strapped couples in time for Valentine’s Day. The Gilded Age package offers a midnight champagne tour of Newport mansions, luxury accomodations and a one-year membership to the Newport Preservation Society. From Jan. 22-29, during peak whale migration season, the Amanyara resort in the Turks and Caicos Islands will host freediving world record holder Tanya Streeter, who will offer diving classes, private lessons, snorkeling tours and show several screenings of her documentary “Diving with Whales.” Staying at an Embassy Suites and entering the “Wish I was Here” sweepstakes from now until Jan. 31, makes guests eligible for a week-long stay at any of Embassy’s nine resort locations. The Atlanta Marriott Marquis is offering two VIP tickets and front-of-theline access for the King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Atlanta Civic Center in its King Tut/First Emperor VIP package. Compiled by Chris Crowell, ccrowell@questex.com Does By Chris Crowell ASSOCIATE EDITOR DVR add value? D espite the overall success of digital video recording in the U.S., much of the hotel industry is going without it. Should hotels add DVR, or is this a feature guests don’t need on the road? Ben Bethel, managing member for the Clarendon Phoenix, which has 48 DVRcapable TVs, isn’t quite sure. “Many guests don’t know about the service,” he said. “I believe, unless they see a familiar remote control, they may not know,” Bethel said. The big question for hotels is that of necessity. “Your typical hotel stay is too short to be able to utilize it,” said Matt Barker, director of marketing for Telerent Leasing Corp. “To charge someone an additional $5 or whatever per night, I don’t think that’d make the value proposition you’re looking for.” That is one of the reasons Anthony Fonzo, senior marketing manager at Philips Hospitality, said more hotels are thinking about adding DVR rather than actually acting on it. “It’s complicated,” Fonzo said. “How do you make sure guest A doesn’t see guest B’s content? The cost side is adds complexity as well.” The cost complexity of DVR may not be any different than the larger issues of hotels losing out on in-room entertainment revenue. Laptops, Netﬂix, iTunes and newer technology like Slingbox, which allows guests to watch content from their home DVR on their laptops, are giving guests more entertainment options that aren’t monetized by the hotel. “People don’t buy as much on-demand content as they used to,” Fonzo said. “So what is the next frontier for revenue?” “We saw people using computers to access content,” Bethel said of the decision to not get a video-on-demand network. “Adult content was huge, but with Wi-Fi being free, most people are searching for other methods.” Adding DVR as an alternative to VOD also removes the option of running additional services through a VOD network infrastructure like video check-out or room service. This could complicate the streamlined guest experience at larger hotels, but Bethel said this was not a problem for the Clarendon, a smaller hotel that wanted to avoid the large up-front cost to add the proper infrastructure. 20dollars per room per month to add a DVR service Source: Ben Bethel, managing member, Clarendon Case study: How to implement DVR service One hotel keeping up with the DVR trend is the Clarendon Phoenix, an upper-upscale boutique property. Forty-eight of its 93 guestrooms are outﬁtted with DVR-capable TVs from LG. Ben Bethel, the hotel’s managing member, plans to fully equip the entire hotel with DVRs this spring through Cox Communications. Guests will have the ability to record shows on their own or play one from a list prerecorded by the Clarendon. “I believe the value is there if a property goes through and pre-programs the DVR to record the top 10 or 20 shows. You can save the latest one, two or three episodes,” Bethel said. Through its deal with Cox, Bethel the Clarendon will not raise CLARENDON rates or charge guests an extra fee for DVR. The only TV fee guests may pay is if they access Cox’s premium on-demand content through the cable box. “Were working with Cox to ensure if guests use on-demand for premium content, they can put in their own credit card info [instead of a pin],” MONDRIAN SOUTH BEACH 27percent of U.S. households have at least one DVR Source: Leichtman Research Group 30percent of households with DVR have more than one box Source: Leichtman Research Group The Mondrian South Beach, a Morgans Hotel Group property, became the ﬁrst hotel to add TiVo recording devices in its guestrooms. CLARENDON The Clarendon Phoenix will record the latest episodes of the top shows for guests to watch in all of its rooms starting this spring. 68percent of DVR owners say they use DVR only when there is nothing on regularly scheduled TV they want to watch Source: Leichtman Research Group Bethel said. Both Cox and the Clarendon will get a “kick back of that sale,” he said. And as for content saved by guests that remains after checkout, the Clarendon isn’t concerned. “[There are] no instructions to delete old content. I don’t think children of an age of concern for this issue should be left unattended in their guestroom,” Bethel said. “Likewise, we all know that the Internet is a far more dangerous place for children to be lurking.” For more info Company Circle No. Cox Communication . . . . . . . 273 LG Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . 274 Lodgenet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275 Philips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276 Sharp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277 Sony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278 Telerent Leasing Corp. . . . . . 279 Totevision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 ONLINE EXTRA: For information on the Mondrian South Beach adding TiVo to its hotel, visit www.hotelmotel.com/hoteltalk, keyword “TiVo.” http://www.HotelMotel.com http://www.hotelmotel.com/hoteltalk

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Hotel & Motel Management - January 19, 2009

Hotel & Motel Management - January 19, 2009 Contents Select Inn First in Vista's Buying Plans Danzinger Chosen for Round 2 at Wyndham Perspective Energy Star Update Legally Speaking Consultant's Corner Sales Clinic Travel Trends Franchise Law Family Business Cornell Insights HotelWorld Update Transactions Careful Marketing is Key for Timeshare Debt Market Slow for Most Transactions Trends & Stats Proper Mix of Uses Leads to Profitable Partnerships Card Check, Employee Retention Big Issues for CEOs Locking Systems Televisions Fitness Centers/Spas Mattresses Ad/Editorial Index Marketplace Checking Out

Hotel & Motel Management - January 19, 2009

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