Surf's Up for Federal Travelers
ou may not yet be able to travel at the speed of the Internet, but the World Wide Web certainingly is making it easier to find, book and work from a hotel room. Many hotels are using high-speed Internet access and in-room PCs to attract guests, and surfing the Web is becoming an integral part of trip planning.
Web-Friendly Hotels
You thought travelers cared most about location, location, location. But more and more - now that virtually all chains have properties in all cities - hotel choices are based on services, amenities and features.
Hotels are upping the stakes with high-speed Internet connections for guests. Whether in the room or in the lobby, free or for a fee, wired or wireless, most major chains are getting Web-friendly.
Right now, says Katherine Potter, spokeswoman for the American Hotel and Motel Association, some chains are dipping their toes in the Internet waters. But eventually, she predicts, everyone will get in the pool; not only that, but costs will come down.
Today, hotel guests with the right hardware and software can plug their computers into a phone line and dial up their Internet service providers. But that requires lugging around lots of equipment and tying up the phone line. The new set-ups allow guests to talk on the phone and surf via high-speed connections. Some hotels even provide PCs right in their rooms.
One leader in providing Internet service is Marriott (including its Courtyard, Resident Inn, Renaissance and Ritz-Carlton brands). As of July, the company had wired all the rooms in 68 of its properties, most of them in big cities. Marriott plans to wire more than 500 properties by year's end. Guests pay $9.95 a day for unlimited service, or nothing if they don't want to use it. Marriott makes its system easy to use - plug and play for any Internet-compatible computer, says spokesman Scott Carman.
Choice International, parent company of Comfort, Quality, Clarion, Sleep, Econo Lodge, Rodeway Inn and MainStay, also is pushing the Internet. Working with Stay Connect, Choice is providing Internet access and, in some cases, in-room PCs and laptops to its 3,700 domestic properties, with a goal of 50,000 wired rooms by the end of next year.
Each Choice property will decide whether, and how much, to charge for the amenities. In-room PCs will probably run $5 to $10 a night, and Internet access will most likely be free, says Choice spokeswoman Anne Papa Curtis.
"Being able to access the Internet is quickly becoming as basic to hotel rooms as refreshments, telephones and televisions," says Choice Senior Vice President Daniel Rothfeld. The company says that less than 1 percent of the 4 million U.S. hotel rooms provide high-speed Internet access or PCs. But 52 percent of guests used the services when they were available, which means that soon there will be a whole lotta surfing going on.
Finding the Inn Crowd
Finding a hotel that meets per diem is the bane of many federal travelers' existence. Fortunately, the General Services Administration's Office of Governmentwide Policy, which sets the spending limits, wants to make it easier.
The office has made its list of hotels that comply with per diem limits and fire-safety regulations available to commercial companies to post on the Web. Travel database maven OAG took it and ran. The result: hotelsatperdiem.com. The site "helps take the puzzle out of government travel," says OAG's Marcia Scofield. "Any property a traveler finds on here, they know it's OK."
As of early July, the site listed about 4,500 hotels and motels nationwide. But it's growing dramatically, says Scofield. She cites, for example, Choice International, which plans to add to the list 1,500-plus properties that meet the criteria. Other chains also want to jump on the bandwagon.
The site, which debuted Feb. 14, already gets more than 900 visits a day during the workweek.
In addition to providing info to travelers, the site is also a way for travelers to provide feedback to GSA about how hotels and per diem rates are working. The agency removed a few properties from the list after receiving traveler complaints about service or failure to honor the government rate, says GSA's travel policy chief Bill Rivers. Travelers who have trouble finding a hotel at or below per diem also can report that to GSA via the site. The agency will reconsider an area's per diem if several travelers point out problems.
Though a valuable resource, OAG's Web site is poorly laid out and difficult to navigate. For example, it's unclear that travelers must fill in the "city" box or the "state" box to locate a list of properties. To make matters worse, if users select a city then a state, they'll get listings for the entire state. Perhaps over time OAG will smooth out these wrinkles.
In the Driver's Seat
When it comes to making travel arrangements, many federal workers would rather do it themselves. While technology is making travel faster and cheaper, it may also be giving travelers some much-desired control.
In March, the Transportation Department kicked off a test of FedTrip, a Web-based self-booking system. Forty frequent travelers at the Federal Aviation Administration made their own airline, hotel and car rental reservations through the site.
Transportation plans to make the program available to all of its 100,000 employees by the end of September and eventually to open it up to other federal agencies.
The beauty of the system, says David Kleinberg, deputy CFO at Transportation, is that it offers travelers independence. For example, when buying a plane ticket, a traveler can go directly into the airline's seat maps and reserve a seat. "We think that's autonomy the frequent traveler will appreciate," says Kleinberg. All the services in the database meet federal travel regulations, so a traveler can't mistakenly pick a hotel that doesn't meet fire-safety rules or a non-city-pair flight, for example. And travelers who frequent certain destinations will be able to save the info needed to book their trips in the system.
Because the system is automated, it will save federal offices money. As a result, Kleinberg expects FedTrip to "catch on pretty quickly" once it's available outside Transportation.
Though predictions are an inexact art, some federal travel experts expect to save 30 percent to 40 percent over traditional transaction fees with Web-based self-booking. Making reservations also should take up to 60 percent less time.
Most of all, promises Kleinberg, travelers will appreciate that the system works within existing Travel Management Center or Commercial Travel Office contracts and that it will be available to any federal traveler with access to an Internet browser.
Transportation developed FedTrip with TRX, a Dallas-based travel industry technology services provider. The firm adapted self-booking software being used in the private sector to conform to federal government needs.
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