Why the boob tubes?
 

When staying at Hilton properties, all the FS I've stayed at (except Miami) have LCD televisions. I've stayed at exactly two FS Marriotts with LCD televisions.

The hotel I'm in today (MCO) has the old style TV, yet it was remodeled in 2007. I spent last week at another FS property and it was just remodeled and still has the boob tubes.

Why can't Marriott move into 2009? Seeing these old boob tube TVs is disappointing.

I think Marriott tends to move more slowly than other brands, and in 2007, I would have told you this was a good thing.

While other brands were putting in 720p sets, it appeared that Marriott was going to wait for 1080p sets and - hopefully - more HDTV channels.

Then the recession hit, and of course one of the easiest ways to save money on a renovation is to simply keep the tube TVs for a few extra years. Given that TV prices continue to fall, I'm certain that many owners are milking their tube TVs for as long as they can.

The only brand that seems to have done flat screens really right (size, resolution, availability of HD channels) is Hyatt Place, IMO.

I don't get this. What purpose would there be in a hotel waiting, then or now, for 1080P? No television station then, now, or in the reasonable future broadcasts in 1080P. While it's true that Blu-Ray players with a Blu-Ray disc could provide a 1080P signal for a 1080P set, this would be of very little advantage to hotel guests.

The advantage is that the hotel can skip a cycle of buying TVs and wait for an economic recovery before spending money on new ones. Of course, TV prices have stopped dropping in recent months as LCD screen prices have started going up with higher demand for consumer electronics (especially in Asia).

The TVs in the Hyatt Place are nice, but their continental breakfast is more on the line of a FI vs a CY.

Plasmas appear to still be going down.

No different than any delay in capital expenditures. You can do the same thing with carpet or a bathroom fixture. To me, a crt television in an upscale hotel room looks as out of place as an old carpet. And, I would guess that many, if not most, properties that replaced their televisions, did so before the economic turndown.

Agreed. It's like the game "which one does not belong", the room is nice in every way except the black boob tube monstrosity. I hope that the hotels replace them all in the next year or two. This factor is enough to change my loyalty.

Well, I was referring to the ones who have not done it yet in terms of waiting for an economy recovery. Credit is tight for many businesses, and I don't think you will see too many hotel franchisees get a thumbs up from their accountants for spending money on new TVs or any large capital expenditure while RevPAR and occupancy rates are in the dumps. It is cheaper for now to put some plasma/LCD TVs in the bar/restaurant/lobby area and potentially attract some customers who might order some food and drink while watching a sports event. Some hotel properties (mainly non-Marriott ones) have actually defaulted on their mortgages.

I have not seen any FS Marriott properties changing their TVs in the past year (out of the roughly 15-20 that I tend to stay with or know somewhat well, which do not have LCD TVs now). Probably about 20-30 % of the FS properties in the DC area have LCD screens in all rooms. Some of the newer CYs and RIs also have at least one in each room (along with an older TV for the RIs that have 2 TVs). I have yet to see any Marriott, Hyatt or Hilton property buy plasma TVs for typical hotel rooms (not including presidential or other large suites). Plasma is more economical for larger sizes (over 45"), which is bigger than what most properties put in their regular rooms.

But some broadcast in 1080i. And the pixel size is going to be more coarse on a 720 set than a 1080 set. But it's more idle speculation on my part than anything else.

I think in today's environment, the overwhelming reason for waiting is - there is no money for renovations. Time and again, posters in these forums underestimate just how serious the recession is in the hospitality industry.

It's a little different. Carpets are custom; TV's are not. When choosing to replace carpet, you have to get interior designers involved, and there are hundreds if not thousands of colors, patterns, weaves, material specifications, etc. to go through before getting to the brass tacks of ordering carpet. Same with bathroom fixtures (which often also involve carpentry work).

With a TV, there are only about 10 choices that work for hospitality and generally only LG, Panasonic and Philips are supplying hotels. You choose a brand and a size and swap. So the lead time to do TV replacements is relatively short compared to the lead time for carpet or hard goods.

Because of this, some carpet and hard goods renovations were probably "in the pipeline" and couldn't be stopped in 2008 when everyone came to realize that the recession was severe. But often TV orders can be intercepted, delayed, transferred to another customer, or canceled.

Since most of the properties of the chains that do have the newer tvs still haven't got the ratio sorted - ie, people's faces stretc-h-h-h-ed across the screen, in those instances I'd actually prefer the older ones ;) :D

Cheers.

I am currently staying at the Cincinnati Marriott North. The TVs are LCD flat screen _and_ there is hi-def programming for the local and some cable channels! Good show. Literally. ^^

Of course, the Hampton Inn where I stayed last week had it as well. :rolleyes:

I was staying at one hotel last year where they were in the construction process of rolling out HD to their rooms. In order to support the pay-per-porn, the wiring was extensive and bulky and it all terminated in a room filled with server-like equipment. It didn't look cheap to build.

It is inconceivable to me that any hotel property made the decision; "let's wait until we can get 1081i". First, there is widespread disagreement as to which provides a better picture between the interlaced 1080i and the progressive 720p, to the extent that a human eye can even tell the difference. Some people argue that 720p is better for fast action such as sports, while 1080i is better for detail like the Discovery Channel. Second, the tiny difference, if any, would be further negated by the relatively small size of the usual 32" or 37" set in a hotel room. Third, whether 720p or1080i set would have a marginally better picture would possibly depend on whether the original signal was 1080i or 720p ( ABC, Fox, and ESPN in 720P; NBC and CBS in 1080i). But then the set top box used at hotels might convert the signal anyway, negating the difference. If you're not bored by now, here's an older thread in the AVS forum in which techies debate the difference. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/archi.../t-775833.html

The ratio problem on some channels is frequently caused by the property's failure to provide high definition channels, which would automatically come in at the proper ratio on wide-screen sets.

As in all of these money/economy debates in various threads, each property/brand has to weigh the savings versus the impact. How much revenue, short-term and long-term, will be lost versus how much savings will be generated. Some properties, I'm sure, are just worried about how to pay this month's bills. I would guess/hope that Marriott corporate would also factor in the long term impact of such decisions on the brands.

By the way, I think that any Renaissance or Marriott fs property that hadn't updated their televisions prior to the economic turndown was already late to the game.

I frequently see the LCD/Plasma TV's in full service, CY, and FI properties.

I rarely see any HD programming, which makes the TV's kind of a waste of money (unless the flat panel is saving a significant amount of space over a tube set).

And if they are using old style armoirs, flat screens don't really save space, so it may only be worth updating them when you replace the furniture.

Which is why i idly speculated on reasons why. Gave you a great excuse to slap me down. :D :D :D

They may be saving energy over a tube set.

Possible. I have no idea how much electricity they save over a regular TV. I would suspect that it's not enough to pay for the TV over any reasonable length of time, but I could certainly be wrong.

And if they were interested in saving electricity, the AC wouldn't be cranked down to 58 in the room every time I check in. I'm exaggerating, of course, but almost every room is pretty cold when I get there. I actually enjoy this, but energy efficient, it's not.

I have seen a couple of places where they're mounted on the walls, which is a nice space/counter saver, and I'm all for any space they can save in the rooms.

I wouldn't try to discourage Marriott from putting the flat panel TV's in every room, but I just don't see the benefit if you're going to cram it into the same armoir as the tube TV and not have HD programming. I'd just as soon not see the cost of that passed on through room rates.

Or maybe not. LCD's use less energy than do CRT's of comparable size. But properties are replacing much smaller CRT's (20-27 inch) with larger LCD's (32-37 inch). The size increase serves to negate any savings of energy and, indeed, the larger-sized LCD's may use more energy than the smaller CRT's. http://www.sierraclub.org/howgreen/screen/answer.asp
(Disclaimer: Not meant as a "slap" to Brian.) ;)

I know in the past socrates or someone else on FT mentioned that there was a delay in getting the TVs changed to accept HD programming. I think it has to be done by property, and there was a waiting period to do that.

If the reason they have the flat panel TV's sitting there displaying only non-HD programming is that they're in a queue to get the signal upgraded and that process is slower than we would like, then that seems reasonable enough.

Must be some line they're in, though. They've had the flat panels w/o HD programming for quite some time.

Whatever happned with the trumpeted system wide tech upgrade
 

This was suppose to have been completed three years ago.
And that was during an upswing in Marriotts fortunes.

Lied to once again-oh Marriott how could you :rolleyes:

Only 269 full service left to install
 

Marriott's press release of 26 Feb 2007 stated they planned to have HD TV with the connectivity panel in all US and Canadian JW, full service Marriott and Ren. by the end of 2009. www.plugintomarriott.com shows the US has 163 of these 432 hotels already completed leaving just 269 properties left to do in the next 3 months.:D

Of course not all of the completed ones have HD programing on the HD screens.:td:

Spot on. A GM I was talking to last year was saying how he was building up the fund to refurbish the rooms including flat screen TVs. The reason for doing it all in one was because with flat screens you don't need a huge piece of furniture so you can take that out and make the room look larger overall. So it is part of larger process involving designers etc.

Unfortunately I haven't stayed there in a while so don't know if he managed to get the accountants sign off or not!