Far more than bells and whistles, today's high-tech amenities raise the bar to new heights to keep groups tuned in and turned on.

What's the quickest way to start a lively discussion among meeting planners? Casually drop the phrase high tech in conversation. Today's meetings depend on the latest technology no matter what their size. From the key that accesses the guest room to the wireless Internet connection to the cell phone reception to the presentation platform, the right measure of high technology can make or break an event. That said, too much unfamiliar technology can frustrate guests and cause meeting planners to power-load antacids while the on-site IT team works the kinks out of the matrix five minutes before showtime.

One of the biggest challenges facing hotels today is to strike a balance between high tech and high touch to ensure that all guests feel welcome and comfortably in control of their environment.



Spotty cell phone reception within a hotel has become the bane of most business travelers. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group solved the problem in a way that may soon reinvent everything from event communications to wireless connectivity to movies on demand and even in-room dining.

To eliminate so-called dead zones, the company installed a distributed antenna system (DAS) in its properties in New York, Boston, and elsewhere. The system amplifies cellular, radio, and wireless Internet signals with multiple micro cell access nodes and a connecting cable that run invisibly throughout the hotel.

"You get great coverage without all the unsightly satellite antennae dressing your building," explains Eric Cruz, IT director at Mandarin Oriental, New York.

For meeting planners, DAS eliminates physical constraints. Need to relocate a registration phone? Simply move it somewhere else. "Physical plant and physical devices don't matter anymore," Cruz says.

Where many hotels offer a trickle of Internet bandwidth, Mandarin Oriental's DAS opens a fire hose. Meeting planners can use the Cisco CallManager platform to easily create custom hunt groups and dial plans that even include external numbers. There's plenty of bandwidth to run in-house TV channels to group guest rooms as well.

DAS will soon allow the hotelier to scrap cable and video-on-demand services in favor of the broader offerings of Internet TV. Also in the design stage: a TV channel that invites guests to preview room service choices onscreen and order at the touch of a digital button.

Steve Shalit, vice president and managing director of the glittering 64-story Trump International Hotel & Tower Las Vegas, chuckles at the mention of high-tech amenities. Sure, he's got Wi-Fi, HDTV, and the latest audiovisual equipment for meetings. His European-style kitchenettes feature top-of-the-line Sub-Zero, Wolf, and Bosch appointments. But would he call the hotel high tech? Not so much.

"In some ways, we've almost gone the opposite way," he says. "That is, we don't want to complicate the experience for a two- or three-day stay. We consciously stayed away from electronic drapes and complicated, intertwined telephone and cable systems with universal remotes that nobody understands."

So imagine his surprise when the tower's almost incidental nod to high tech–a 15-inch flat-screen television inset in the bathroom mirror–generated instant buzz. "Everybody comments on the televisions," he says. "Not the dual-vanity sink or the Italian breccia marble or the deep soaking Jacuzzi–it's the television."

Meeting planners find the in-mirror screens a great way to shepherd their flocks.

"You can post your meeting schedule so folks can actually read it as they're shaving or applying makeup in the morning," Shalit says. "You can run your in-house channel through the cable system. Guests love them. Love them!"

If the old maxim about "all work and no play" is true, Hotel Sax knows how to keep Jack and Jill sharp. To make downtime more enjoyable, the Chicago boutique hotel teamed with Microsoft to create a unique entertainment lounge it calls The Studio–A Microsoft Experience.

Inside the lounge, guests find more than 50 Xbox games (including Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Madden NFL 09), an extensive digital music library (guests are issued a personal Zune player on check-in), and HDTV and movies in a home-theater setting. Guests can compete among themselves or with gamers around the world via the Xbox Live service.

"We've had groups use the studio for receptions, for teambuilding exercises, for brainstorming sessions," says Adam Kaplan, marketing director. "We've had different groups from different companies and rival groups from the same company in Guitar Hero shred-offs."

Kaplan says stimulation helps instill brand loyalty in the hotel's clientele.

"Learning is a major component of taking that experience home with them," he explains. "That's going to stay with them much longer than the thread count on the sheets or how well their eggs were done by room service."

From the keyless entry to the monitored minibar to the onetouch Good Night button, the guest room technology within CityCenter, an enclave of high-end Las Vegas hotels and facilities slated to open late this year, will rival that of many "smart" luxury homes–without the learning curve.

Credit that to Scot Campbell, senior vice president and chief information officer for MGM Mirage. He worked for two years with home automation specialists Control4 to design the features for CityCenter's Aria Resort & Casino; Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas; and The Harmon Hotel, Spa & Residences.

The guest room experience will be dramatic. Upon entry, lights will slowly brighten, music will play, and curtains will automatically part to reveal sweeping city or mountain views. All room systems (lights, drapes, service requests, wake-up calls, and entertainment options) can be controlled in three ways: via the TV, at a seveninch bedside touch screen, or old school—style with the usual buttons, dials, and wall switches.

"We were very, very careful not to remove the familiar user interfaces in the guest room," Campbell admits. "You can choose the interface that makes you most comfortable."

The technology is equally exciting behind the scenes, where the network can monitor everything from the contents of the minibar to the batteries in the remote.

"Can we preemptively know that a lightbulb is going to burn out?" Campbell asks. "Well, not today. But we have the technology now that starts to enable those things."

The St. Regis hotel brand maintains its competitive edge both by making large-scale investments and devising creative, inexpensive solutions to the changing technological needs of corporate groups.

When the last of its residential units sold, the St. Regis Resort, Monarch Beach converted its condominium sales center into the Malta Room, a 1,091-square-foot event space that features a $250,000 multiscreen videoconferencing system.

Michael Mustafa, director of sales and marketing, says the seemingly pricey investment was based on real-world, bottom-line considerations. "We may be leveraging what the future may be," Mustafa says. "Videoconferencing may be how more business is going to be conducted. Having this built in, as opposed to trying to hire a company to bring in all that equipment only when it's needed, will save 50 percent on something like this."

Then again, sometimes a minimal investment in the right high-tech solution can make the big difference. Case in point: The St. Regis New York and other St. Regis properties have equipped their butlers with wireless BlackBerry mobile devices to help field those inevitable last-minute emergencies.

Philip De Angelis, head butler at St. Regis New York, recalls a recent incident in which a BlackBerry saved the day: "A guest went to a business meeting across town, only to discover that he left his flash drive with the presentation for the meeting in his hotel room. Realizing he didn't have time to go back and forth, the guest quickly e-mailed his butler with the situation. The butler responded via BlackBerry, stating that he had picked up the flash drive from the room and would be delivering it to the meeting momentarily."

Old-fashioned service, thanks to high-tech innovation.

Few hotels can customize a guest's experience like Seattle's high-tech boutique Hotel 1000.

Digital thermometers with infrared signals scan each guest room to detect motion and, when guests are present, adjust the room temperature to their preference. Guests can customize the artwork on their 40-inch HDTVs. Each guest setting is recorded for future visits.

Manager Matt Hagerman says high tech helps Hotel 1000 restore a hospitality feature that seems lost in time: consideration.

"When guests check out, they say, 'Something is a little bit different here; everything was just so smooth,'" he says.

Groups flock to Hotel 1000's Golf Club, two actual tee boxes equipped with infrared tracking and digital video that enable virtual play on 50 of the world's greatest golf courses, including Pebble Beach, Pinehurst, and St. Andrews. An adjoining nineteenth-hole reception area enables up to 28 friends and coworkers to join the fun.

"We use it for team building, incentives, and flow-type meetings where you can just drift down into golf, and there is some specialty cocktail and a sales pitch being made in there. It reflects one of the mentalities we took in developing this property, which was wow, whimsy, and fun," Hagerman says. For all of its high-tech wizardry, Hotel 1000 was stumped by that one problematic element in every guest room: the alarm clock. "Everybody complains about the alarm clock," Hagerman notes. "We don't trust them. People go so far as to travel with their own."

For a solution, Hotel 1000 went back to the future.

"We streamlined the wake-up call process through the touch-screen phone where you get a digital confirmation that your wake-up call is set, no human error. And then, next to the bed, there's a simple Seiko 12-hour analog clock where you just set the little dial and press On. We sell more of those little clocks and get more compliments that say thank you for not trying to overdo it."

Where will hotel high tech take us next? Virtual in-room hosts a la Hal in 2001: A Space Odyssey, perhaps? Holographic artwork? Voice recognition room entry? One thing's for certain: The creative uses of high tech have only begun.

"I would say we probably have another two to three years until IT is seen as an essential component equal to housekeeping or food and beverage," says Eric Cruz of the Mandarin Oriental, New York.

Michael Mustafa of the St. Regis at Monarch Beach agrees. "You have to have high technology," he says. "If you look at the nature of the business and how the dynamics of our customers are changing, high tech is still a flourishing business; that's not going away. High tech is still moving forward. We as hotels need to keep up." And an increasing number of visionary venues are leading the charge.