Originally Posted by nihonto

The last few times at Sheraton business centers I have been shut out of getting anything done.

These boxes they have in there, locked down and running Windows with IE-only don't support things like Google docs. This is making something that used to be simple, printing a boarding pass, into a complicated situation.

The last time I had to skip out and go to the Conrad next door to get some work done. First time I have been completely unable to get anything done in a hotel business center.

If they at least installed some standards compliant browsers (i.e. at least one other thing other than IE) then things would be easier.

I couldn't even download the PDF anywhere since these things were locked down so tight, and print from the file system. All I could do was vainly look at my screen.

I hope this does not spread to other Starwood chain hotels. I understand the appeal of these machines: probably it's a one click install for IT and they are more secure than just letting users do anything, but they are also a massive funnel that forces you to use Microsoft technology, even when it doesn't work, without any alternatives. My experiences with hotel business centers are uniform in that other browsers were installed and usually made default, since they just work better than IE.