Screens With Cool Programs That Make You Want To Climb onto the Treadmill

I wanna run: Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

I wanna run: Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.

What’s the first word that leaps to mind when you think of treadmills or elliptical machines?

Entertaining isn’t my first choice, either. But a new generation of screens being rolled out at top-flight hotels hints that Get Me Off Of This Thing doesn’t have to be the auto-pilot mantra when you climb onto a cardio machine. Read more

An Easy Check-In at the New High Line Hotel

High Line Hotel lobby: home to iPad check-in.

High Line Hotel lobby: home to iPad check-in.

The new High Line Hotel occupies a Victorian brick building with a parade of 19th-century-style gas lamps planted out front. Classic black phones with rotary dials perch on the nightstands. And on each desk, a gilded iron embosser sits at the ready should the urge strike to take pen (make that fountain pen) to paper and write a letter the time-honored way.

But check-in is pure 21st century. Read more

Preview of Coming Attractions — 5 Cool Hotel Gadgets Ready For Their Debut

We love trade shows. For hotel buffs the annual International Hotel, Motel + Restaurant Show at New York’s Javits Center is the Great Kahuna, a self-described hospitality show of shows unleashing a cornucopia of new, well, stuff.

Tucked deep within the rows of big-ticket items – towering refrigerators, 12-inch-thick mattress, even a couple of food trucks – we found five nifty gadgets their backers want to put in hotels. Remember, you (probably) saw them here first.

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LobbyFriend, a New Travel App, Aims to Bring Social Media to Your Hotel Lobby

Hotel guests fall into two categories – those who want to meet and mingle with other guests and those who can’t think of anything worse. Read more

Meet Tingo — The New Online Booking Site with the Amusing Name

New York in springtime – it’s lots better than New York in January, and hotel rates reflect this. What better time to unveil a new online booking site promising low prices?

Tingo purports to offer that elusive but delectable commodity – the sure thing. Read more

Now Playing at Andaz 5th Avenue: Hyatt’s New High-Tech TVs

After smartphones, can smart TVs be far behind? Hyatt thinks so.

This week the company announced plans to install new televisions with internet capability in the guest rooms of its full-service hotels in the US, Canada and the Caribbean over the next two years. Compared to standard flatpanel TVs, Hyatt’s new televisions are downright brainy. Read more

Lose That Zapper: Hotel Room Channel Surfing on a Mobile Device Is Here

Add the TV zapper to the list of hotel room amenities one step closer to the junk heap.

Last week LodgeNet, the largest provider of in-room entertainment, introduced a new app that lets hotel guests use their smartphones to operate the TV. The free LodgeNet Mobile App turns an iPhone, iPad or Android into a hotel room remote control that does it all —  turns the TV on and off, adjusts the sound and accesses free TV, on-demand TV and pay-per-view movies.  The app also serves up information about the hotel and local events, restaurants, maps and attractions. Read more

Want to Stay at Big-Name Chain Hotel like Hyatt, Hilton or Marriott? Check out Roomkey.com, a New Hotel Booking Website

 

Is Room Key the hotel version of the Empire Strikes Back?

Last week Roomkey.com, a new hotel search engine, went live. But instead of a third-party consolidator like Expedia or Travelocity, Room key is operated by a consortium of big-gun hotel chains whose properties it handles exclusively. Read more

Are iPads The Next New “It” Item at Hotels? The Morgans Group Thinks So

What’s the next hotel room amenity destined for the slag heap littered with CD players and tube TVs? My guess: the in-room phone with its push-button call list for the concierge, room service and housekeeping. Read more

Who Needs a Bartender (or a Chef)? These Three NYC Hotels Put You to Work (In a Good Way)

Don’t tip the Yotel robot

That much-discussed Yobot robotic arm that grabs and stores your luggage at the soon-to-open Yotel Times Square got us thinking about other nifty labor saving devices – as in the saving of the hotel staff’s labor – around town.

We visited three hotels with clever do-it-yourself amenities, read the instructions and pushed the appropriate buttons. How did we fare?

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