Interesting piece in today's NY Times. Despite Marriott's announcement in February that all Marriotts, JW's, and Ren's will have 32 inch hd flat panel tv's, only 58 do so far, and installation at all the properties will not be complete until the end of 2009. All W's will have flat panels by the end of the year, and 80% do now. Hilton is in the process of installing flat panels at all of its North American properties. (Article doesn't say this is just limited to fs properties, so it would appear Hampton, etc. is included.) LodgeNet, a technology provider to various hotels, is planning a SportsNet service which will provide, among other things, your home town sports teams (Go Tigers) at a cost of $10 to $20 per day.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/te...=1&oref=slogin

I've encountered a few Marriott properties that had the new HDTV Flat Panel with plug-ins availabe. Although in theory it is an excellent set up and system, the big problem is that Marriott restricts certain functions of the HDTV Flat Panel mainly being able to control the aspect ratio. So unless you are getting a High Definition TV signal, you will have to watch all analog TV programs (which is what you will mostly have a choice of) and depending on the DVD in stretch mode which personally is one of my pet peeve's.

Why the hotels won't let the view have full control of their viewing experience is unknown to me.

I'm going to guess the article simply omitted that part: I doubt Hilton is really outfitting the Hampton brand with LCD's. I'd love to be proven wrong on this...

I'm surprised Hilton and Marriott aren't racing to outfit the Residence Inn and Homewood brands with better TV's and beds. It seems like decent beds and TV's could actually drive conversion in that category - incremental, measurable increases in stays, rates, profits, etc.

If I'm doing a 2-night stay at a FS Marriott or Starwood, I might not even turn on the TV. I really don't care what they have. If I'm doing a 2-week stay and have a choice that includes a property with an LCD TV and some good HD programming, I'm more interested - and possibly willing to pay more for it.

That's an excellent point. I had an extended stay at a Summerfield Suite back in 2002, and they had a VCR in the room, which is an excellent feature I haven't seen replicated at any other extended stay hotels. I know they want you to buy their overpriced movies and all, but I think a VCR / DVD player would be better recieved by guests, especially those with kids.

Greg

I'm not an expert at any of the HD stuff with TVs, so I don't know what goes into migrating to the flat-panel HDTVs. With that, don't a number of RIs have 2 (1-bedroom) or 3 (2-bedroom) TVs? If so, would they have to upgrade all the TVs to HDTVs or is it a non-issue to upgrade only the one in the living room and leave the one in the room as is?

Welcome to FlyerTalk, phunkyjoey.

The 42" flat panels at the new Hyatt Places have converted several folks to stay there, including me when it makes sense. Amazing how much difference having a nice big HDTV in your room can help ease the pain of a long, frustrating day. I am surprised other chains aren't upping the ante with the larger HDTV's.

Welcome phunkyjoey.

Note to self: I'm not a Hyatt guy, but I want to try out a Hyatt Place. Sounds like a great concept. I hope the Residence Inn brand management team is booking some stays and checking it out themselves.

Marriott has more details about their "modernization" at: www.plugintomarriott.com

This is indeed the correct size for most hotel rooms. Marriott has "gone cheap" with a 32" standard. And of course they are being very sluggish in providing OTA HD local signals.

In some cases, you can get to the aspect ratio via a button on the OnCommand remote. Sometimes it's buried in a menu. This enables you to watch standard TV - or in most Marriott cases, every single channel provided - in its correct 4:3 aspect ratio.

Marriott has traditionally been too slow, too late, too small in their tech enhancements.

Marriott has really been way, way behind the 8-ball on this...
I have been very, very disappointed in their almost non-existent progress on this.
Frankly, its disgraceful.

one thing about big screen TV's- bigger is not necessarily better unless you're sitting the right distance away. Hyatt Place rooms are bigger than your standard room so putting a 42" room in a HP makes sense while putting one in a regular room may not.

Crunch time for Marriott: bigger rooms or smaller tv's.

Hilton is putting LCDs into some HGIs. I had one in PDX a few weeks back.

Be nice if the San Diego Marriott and Marina has them when I arrive in a week and a half.