Flyaway - I definately do NOT work for Starwood. But I do travel ALOT. And nothing frustrates me more than checking into a $125+ per night room at any hotel and not having CNN or CNBC. Marriott 'used' to be my hotel of choice.

Now, I do stay at Starwood mostly. But ocaissionally do make a reservation at Marriott. Recently - the Marriott Pittsburgh City Center. No CNN, no CNBC. CNN Headline was there. Rainy night - didn't want to go out.

In this day and age, I think that I should have more choices than ABC, NBC, FOX and Headline News with 2 or 3 hotel channels that advertise meetings and restaurants. Marriott doesn't think this is important, so I choose Starwood or Hilton.

We all have a choice, but don't you think that Marriott would consider that they may actually be losing business over such an easy problem to solve????

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Traveler113

i also agree that Starwood channel selection appears to be consistently expanded over Marriott .

i don't know much about engineering, however, i think the issue is that a lot of the Marriotts are franchised, and they can pretty much decide how many channels they want to pay the local cable co. for.

however, not having CNN, or Headline News in the year Y2K is a little tacky ??

I also think it is centrally controlled. Each individual property gets to pick one CCN channel, one movie channel, etc. Marriotts are very efficiently run. Now, if only that efficiency could translate into better benefit for MR.

Just my 2 cents,

From the commercials that I've seen during recent Marriott stays, it looks like they're getting their cable stations from DirecTV (lots of spots about tuning to channel five hundred something to watch a show). I would assume that they could cut a deal with DirecTV to provide more channels.

Another pet peeve of mine on this subject is that Marriott hasn't upgraded their broadcast station list since the demise of the Dumont Network! I've been in more than a few Marriotts where the only broadcast stations available were ABC, CBS, and NBC (even thought there were other stations in town). Hasn't anyone at Marriott ever heard of FOX, UPN, or the WB? Mind you, I'm not a big 'slayer' fan, but some more choices would be nice.

You would think someone would find it logical to give us the 'Weather Channel', since we're probably in a distant city.

On the up side, I've noticed that Residence Inns and Renaissance Hotels have had complete 'basic cable' (20-30 channels and up) wherever I've stayed.


[This message has been edited by PointJunkie (edited 02-04-2000).]

Interesting how almost everyone assumes that these hotels get their TV channels from cable. It's actually fairly rare. I don't think I've seen a suburban hotel in 15 years without a satellite dish on the roof or out back. That's how the "Spectravision" or whatever pay movies get to the hotel. The nationally distributed "cable channels" get there this way too. The off-air channels are often captured just that way: "off-air", and then filtered and mixed into the hotel's distribution system. Since cable systems charge by the set, and the hotel has to get the pay movies anyway (for the revenue), few of them want to pay 2 expensive vendors for choices that the guests can only watch one at a time.

reading trough all above posts I think that your Marriott experiences are limited to US properties. My international Marriott experience on this is a lot better.

Just an FYI, I'm in a Residence Inn in LAS this week and besides the regular local fare (CBS, FOX, NBC, PBS AND ABC) they have CNN, CNN Headline, ESPN & 2, Spanish, TNT, A&E, Nick, WTBS. Curiously the Wethaer channel is missing, but hey it's 70 degrees so who needs it.

ontherun (on vacation)

I stayed at the Courtyard in Buffalo this weekend and all stations mentioned by ontherun were available.

FYI,

I'll be leaving the Marriott Suites Dulles this morning.

The TV lineup here includes HBO, TBS, TNT, WB, Regular CNN, FOX, ESPN, TWC and local stations.

Note the feed seems to be from mixed sources. The networks are the Washington stations, but TWC is not giving the local forecast.

The one thing that is quite amusign is that Super 8 actually has better stations than Marriott (and lots of times Hilton). I have stayed in some pretty remote ares in a Super 8 with a "being home" style of cable. The Marriotts (as mentioned earlier) do not even have all the local channels (most specifically UPN and FOX). It is fustrating... had to go to another hotel and watch Star Trek Voyager in the lobby on night.. (Marriott did not offer it). But the Westin in Portland had an excellent selection of stations.

Ok.. enough ramblng.

has anyone stayed at a Marriott recently that had truly excellent CABLE? if so - please list location and as many channels as you recall.

thanks. - platinum marquis

Most of my stays are at either the Courtyard Indianapolis Northwest, or the Fullerton, Ca Marriott. Both have a limited number of channels that includes CNN, TBS, TNT as well as all of the network channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, WB, FOX) as best as I can remember. I can't imagine starting my day without CHiPs reruns. Hey our friends in Europe might want the BBC or some other channels. Are we too USA centric here.

I have found that some hotels do seem to be cable hotels in that they may have as many as 50-60 channels including the shopping ones. However, most hotels have a dish somewhere and use that for the non-over-the-air channels.

I just checked into the Fairfield in PWM for my very first ever Fairfield stay. The first thing I did was fill out the comment card that asked for ways to improve the hotel. I asked for more TV stations.

It seems to me that the number of stations available is inversely proportional to the room rate. I just left a small mom-and-pop motel in Rockland ME, where they had about 65 channels.

Cable companies will sell "bulk service" to hotels, which is how the low end properties typically get it. They pay a fixed rate per month, but are generally responsible for their own distribution equipment within the hotel. Some cable companies will lease and maintain this equipment for an additional charge.

If you've just finished your 6th 12 hour day in a row, and the snow storm forecast to bring 12" of snow has just begun, there's nothing more comforting than a remote control and 57 channels, even if there isn't anything on.