There is a phrase you don't hear very often. In fact when we board a plane, enter a meeting or listen to the opening messages at a conference we usually hear just the opposite. Lately we hear with increasing frequency that mobile phones and the apps that we run on them will dramatically change the way we work, live and manage travel. So why are we always asked to turn them off?
For a long time, the hospitality industry has managed to convince business travelers that they should pay extra for high speed internet access (or HSIA in industry parlance) in four and five star hotels even though the same companies offer it for free in their lower tier brands.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association during the past few days produced interesting dialogue providing some insight into where the lodging industry is heading. Hotels are bracing for a tough 2010 that will see further rate declines; luxury properties will be the first to come back; business travel will remain weak; and hotels will continue to charge ancillary fees for amenities like high-speed Internet, according to comments made at AH&LA's fall conference here in New York.
To applause, Cornerstone Information Systems CEO Mat Orrego this week at The Masters Program said that as a traveler, he finds it annoying that all hotels don't offer free Internet access (
we agree). David Marriott's take? It's still a money-maker but hoteliers will cave.
