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Hotel Amenities / Hotel TVs / DirecTV / Hotel Germs / Hotel News / → All Tags

A Germ-Free Remote Control Coming Soon to Your Hotel Room

Is it Christmas? It sure feels like it with yesterday's news that the Satellite TV company DirecTV is working on a germ-free remote control just for hotels. Oh yeah, and they will also be supplying hotels with more than 100 HD channels. The Hollywood Reporter reports:

DirecTV has already offered TV service to hotels, but the clear branding, the germ-free remote, the expanded HD offer and programming and interactive programming guide are new. The new service puts a small receiver into hotel guest rooms rather than putting - as has been the case so far - a range of receivers into the hotel utility room with each tuned to a specific channel. That used to limit the number of available channels.

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Snapshot / Hotel TVs / London Hotels / Royal Wedding Hotels / → All Tags

This is One Secret The Bentley London Should Keep To Themselves

The Bentley London Hotel calls itself one of the city's "best kept secrets" but these TVs in their guestrooms should probably remain hidden.

Even though the hotel's website shows flat-screens in their rooms, it seems a few of these clunkers have stayed on. For a luxury hotel, you'd think they be on the up and up with the latest in TV technology. Why even the budget Tune Hotel in Westminster has flat-screens.

Not surprisingly, the hotel is part of the Waldorf-Astoria Collection, whose hotels aren't always "with it" amenity-wise or technology-wise, especially in their flagship hotel in New York. We rather like the rest of the opulently styled rooms with their luxe bedding, chandeliers and silk-covered walls and drapes but still, those TVs should remain out of sight.

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Celebrity Scoop / Hotel Technology / Katy Perry / Hotel TVs / 3D Hotel TVs / Paris Hotels / → All Tags

The Plaza Athenee in Paris Gets Katy Perry and a Panasonic 3D HDTV

Where: 25 AVE MONTAIGNE, Paris, France, 75008

It's the Summer of Celebs in the City of Light! In this episode, we have "California Gurl" Katy Perry arriving at the The Plaza Athenee. X17 Online reports that later on Katy tweeted:

Drank Jean Paul Gaultier water & used pink rose scented bathroom tissue! Oh frenchies, you are TRES CHIC!

Now we're dying to know if this was in the bathroom at the Plaza Athenee or not. If so, we'll be making a pit stop in their bathrooms next trip to Paris.

However, in more exciting news for hotel technology geeks, we've learned from the Plaza Athenee's Facebook page, that the hotel has equipped their Royal Suite with a Panasonic 3D Full HD TV. Here's how this super high-tech TV works:

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Hotel Amenities / Hotel TVs / InterContinental Hotels / Manhattan Hotels / → All Tags

The IC Times Square Will Have Big TVs (But Still Needs a Shorter Name)

Where: W 44th Street [map], New York, NY, United States, 10036

When it comes to the TV in your hotel room, does size matter? While we're much more interested in how fast (and how free!) our in-room WiFi is, we bet there are plenty of travelers who prize a huge TV screen. (And during football season, at least, we'd be one of them.)

Well, the Intercontinental Times Square will make size-ists happy when it opens this summer, with its HDTVs measuring 42 inches. Especially in a room of NYC proportions this seems more than generous.

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Hotel Technology / Hotel TVs / Hotel Bathrooms / Viva Vegas / → All Tags

Who Watches Those TVs in Hotel Bathroom Mirrors?

We've just landed in Vegas for a shot of warmth and little bit of tech. Today, we'll be hitting the show floor at CES, to see what groovy travel gadgets and other technical bells and whistles and widgets may wind up in our hotel rooms a year from now.

After checking in to The Flamingo, we realized we had a good question for the hotel-geekery folks we might meet: What's next? Because, frankly, we think those TVs embedded in the bathroom mirrors are played out.

We love the massive flatscreen TVs that come standard in any good hotel room these days—and we don't even mind the excess of having more than one TV. But, seriously, what is with these low-fi mirror TVs? Did someone dream them up at CES three years ago after one too many post-show Chardonnays?

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Hotel TVs / Hotel Technology / London Hotels / → All Tags

The Met's New TVs Are All White (And All Free)

Where: Old Park Lane, London, United Kingdom, W1K 1LB

TVs are tricky things. You want what’s on them, obviously, but they’re not always the prettiest elements to a bedroom. What to do? You can squirrel it away in a cupboard looking slightly ashamed of it. You can wall-mount it so it’s out and proud.

Or you could take a leaf out of the Metropolitan London’s book and buy in some TVs that actually blend in with your carefully planned colour scheme. It’s just replaced the tellies in all 150 rooms, swapping boring black for snazzy white 32-inchers.

Not only are they pretty but they’re by Samsung, have 67 channels, 90 radio stations, internet and music and DVD libraries on there – and none of it will cost you a penny. We thoroughly approve.

Marriott Hotels / Movenpick Hotels / Intercontinental Hotels / Hotel TVs / → All Tags

Bollywood Content Coming to a Hotel Room Near You

Can't satisfy your thirst for Bollywood entertainment? Never fear, it's spreading faster than swine flu. The Acentic digital TV people have set up a deal with Shemaroo Entertainment (a "leading Bollywood content house") to get more gleeful song-and-belly-dance onto your hotel room television.

They say they've recognized that there's a high demand amongst hotel guests for this kind of programming, although we don't remember putting Bollywood requests on any guest suggestion forms ourselves.

The South Asian video-on-demand content will include Bollywood films, yoga instructional videos and Indian documentaries. Acentic has deals with hotel chains like Intercontinental Hotels, Marriott Hotels and Movenpick Hotels across the Middle East, Europe and Africa, so there's a high probability you'll be switching on to a screen full of Bollywood sometime soon.

[Photo: Generation X-Ray]

Hotel Technology / Hotel TVs / Chicago Hotels / → All Tags

Flick This: Control4 Remotes at the James

Where: 55 East Ontario [map], Chicago, IL, United States, 60610

Complaining about a room having way too many remote controls is the way things go when hotels get overhyped about their gadgets, but places like The James in Chicago are getting wise to that. The James is one of the first places to want the Control4 remote control in its rooms; the Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas is apparently planning to follow.

We haven’t tried this all-in-one remote ourselves yet, but there are a couple of points the marketing hype makes that do impress us. First up, the remote doesn’t need a “line of sight” to be able to operate something, so it doesn’t matter if your chubby boyfriend stands in front of the TV--the remote will still work.

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Hotel Technology / Hotel TVs / → All Tags

Hotel TV Technology: Endless Channels and Fast Channel Surfing

When is a hotel TV more than just a hotel TV? That's easy: it's when it has ultra-fast channel zapping. Yep, that's officially one of the features of the Acentic TV platform that's already in the Sofitel at T5 at Heathrow and has just been rolled out in the Cavendish in London, too.

The TV system features hundreds and hundreds of channels (a whole lot more than Springsteen's 57 channels but we reckon there might still be nothing on), and access to updated info on news, weather and sightseeing. And a really high quality screen.

They're targeting guests who expect all this to be laid on and who also expect "an instant response to their every request". That channel zapping really better be ultra-fast or a few of these guests might be complaining.

[Photo: iwantanimac]

Viva Vegas / Hotel Openings / Hotel TVs / → All Tags

The Newly Opened Palms Place Gets Thumbs Up and It's Not Just for the TVs

Where: 4321 W Flamingo Rd [map], Las Vegas, NV, United States, 89103

We gave you a sneak peek of the Palms Place Hotel and Spa back in February and now that it's been up and running for a couple of months, we thought we'd check back in to see how guests have been finding it.

Over on the TripAdvisor guest reviews page, only four people have made a comment so far, but three of them are very detailed so we've got something to go on.

Overall, things are sounding very positive. While earlier guests reported a few teething problems related to construction, most seem confident that these will be worked out and everybody would be happy to go back again.

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Sydney Hotels / Hotel TVs / → All Tags

Rydges North Sydney Lets You Take the TV Home

Where: 54 Mclaren Street, North Sydney, Australia, 2060

Staying in the north side of Sydney has one big advantage--a trip into Sydney means you get to cross over the gorgeous Sydney Harbour Bridge. Right now there's another interesting advantage if you stay at Rydges North Sydney, because they've recently upgraded their guest rooms to include new "Dream Beds" ... and since they found the old television sets didn't fit in so well anymore, they've also upgraded them to be 32 inch widescreen LCD TVs.

But that's not the good news. The cool part, we think, is that Rydges now has 166 old TVs (less a few that they've already given away) that guests can take home if they want. Rather than just dumping their 24 inch Philips televisions, Rydges North Sydney has decided to let their guests take them away instead, so if you stay at the hotel in the near future, you can pick up a free (working) TV.

Largely targeted at business travelers, room rates can drop to as low as A$139 (US$130) on weekends, making a free TV an exceptionally good deal. Come to think of it, the picture on our TV's been looking a bit crooked this week ...

Miami Beach Hotel Reviews / Hotel Technology / Hotel TVs / Snapshots / → All Tags

Snapshot :: One Remote Makes All Your Dreams Come True

Where: 660 Washington Ave [map], Miami Beach, fl, United States, 33139

This is a shot of the remote control at the Angler's Boutique Resort Hotel which we wrote about earlier. We felt it was important to give you a close-up of the remote (and the iPod dock next to it) which turns on the TV, selects whether you want basic TV or cable, turns on the DVD player and allows you to order a movie from the in-room risque movie list. We half expected this remote to flush the toilets, draw the blinds, turn down the air and give us a back massage. Now, wouldn't that be nice?

Related Stories:
· Inside the Angler's Boutique Resort Hotel [HotelChatter]