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To: Estephen who wrote (15138)	9/4/1999 10:58:00 AM
From: E. Graphs	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 29970

Hotels Scrambling To Install In-Room High-Speed Internet Service dailynews.yahoo.com >>As hotel guests, particularly business travelers, grow more dependent on the Internet, large hotel chains are scrambling to install high-speed Internet lines in rooms and meeting spaces, industry sources and analysts said Friday. Some hotels are even adding technology concierges to help guests hook up their laptops and other equipment. Hotels including Hilton Hotels Corp. (NYSE:HLT - news), Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, and Marriott International Inc., which includes The Ritz-Carlton chain, have begun installing and advertising in-room high-speed Internet access, which is about 50 times faster than current 56K modem access, Bear Stearns analyst Jason Ader said. Most of the chains are either online already or plan to be by next year in at least some of their properties, he said. ''For the most part, high-speed Internet is going into full-service, luxury and boutique hotels, which typically attract the highest numbers of free-spending business travelers,'' Ader said. ''Many chains hope that are providing Internet access will create an additional source of revenue,'' he added. The industry standard, adopted by Marriott, Hilton and others, is a fee of $9.95 per night. Hilton has installed high-speed access in 25 of its hotels and hopes to have 50 properties online by year-end, spokesman Marc Grossman said. Starwood is speed-wiring its upscale boutique W Hotels and will eventually install high-speed Internet access into all its hotels, spokesman Jim Gallagher said. Minneapolis-based Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, a privately held company, has begun installing high-speed Internet access into at least 50 of its Radisson Hotels, spokeswoman Betsy Day said. Earlier this week, Marriott International reached an deal to begin installing in October high-speed Internet access in Marriott guest rooms, meeting rooms and business centers in at least 100 hotels by year-end and more than 500 by the end of 2000, said spokesman Beth Finotti. In addition to high-speed in-room access, several upper-tier hotels are hiring technology concierges to help guests having trouble with laptop computer hookups, cellular phones and other networking equipment. For example, Marriott's The Ritz-Carlton has begun complimentary ''technology butler'' service to its guests, which will be available in all its hotels worldwide by the end of September, spokeswoman Stephanie Platt said. Starwood has hired technology concierges in several of its upscale hotels in major urban areas, Gallagher said. While some properties see Internet access as revenue-generating, other hotels are opting to offer the service as a free perk. Three-year-old Wingate Inns International Inc, a subsidiary of Parsippany, N.J.-based Cendant Corp. (NYSE:CD - news) that caters to upper-market business travelers, built 70 Wingate Inn properties with free high-speed Internet access wired into every guest and meeting room, spokesman Michael LaCosta said.<<