REPORT FROM THE U.S.—In 2007, The Clarendon Hotel in Phoenix put flat-screen televisions with built-in digital-video recorders in 48 of its 105 guestrooms. At the time, the price was right for TVs with the added DVR feature—but now the DVRs are more of a superfluous accessory than a sought-after amenity for guests.
“The technology works as promised, but (guests) don’t want to use it,” said Ben Bethel, GM of the hotel. “We don’t see guests using (the DVRs) at all.”
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Ben Bethel |
Bethel added that the DVRs never took off because guests weren’t staying long enough to record shows. “These days, it seems there isn’t need for cable, satellite or DVRs in guestrooms because most people stream their content from their laptops or hand-held device,” he said.
But not all hotels are regarding DVRs as outdated technology.
Josh Weiss, VP of brand and guest technology at Hilton Worldwide, said DVRs are “such a prevalent trend with residential use,” that Hilton wanted to capitalize on that. The company is testing DVRs in two of its extended-stay Homewood Suites properties in the Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles markets.
“We had seen the trend with residential usage being the shifting of time and place (to watch) content is really the norm,” he said.
Implementing DVRs in extended-stay hotels was obvious, Weiss said. Guests are staying multiple nights and “want to watch content on a different night,” and as technology evolves and gets more integrated, he hopes guests will be able to set their preferences to record their favorite shows before they even arrive at the property.
The pros and cons of DVRs
Guests might rely on their DVRs when they’re at home, but those values don’t necessarily translate to their expectations at hotels, sources said.
“Although I follow in-room services and in-room entertainment very closely, the subject of DVRs in hotel rooms does not interest me at all, and I think it is an incredibly bad idea under any circumstances,” Mark Haley, managing partner of Prism Partnership, a consulting firm that provides marketing, distribution and technology services, said in an email.
“Putting any kind of technology appliance into a guestroom is not a good idea,” he added. “They take up space (often scarce), they require an AC power receptacle (often scarce), they get obsolete and need to be replaced. They are expensive; capital is always scarce,” he said.
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Darrin Pinkham |
DVRs also lack bottom-line, revenue-generating benefits.
“There’s no (return on investment) to me,” said Darrin Pinkham, VP of technology at Benchmark Hospitality. “It’s going to cost several hundred dollars a room to have a recording device to have DVR functionality. What owner is going to add that into the mix?”
As Weiss and the Hilton team are beginning to assess the benefits, he said “guest positive feedback is really important” whereas incremental revenue isn’t yet a concern.
“We’re not charging more for rooms with the devices,” he said. Although “some guests aren’t used to seeing (the DVR)” and “there’s a learning curve to make (guests) aware that it’s present,” he said when guests are aware of it, the hotels are seeing more repeat guests.
The cost of implementation
Implementing DVRs, figuring out the required cabling and assessing how to erase guests’ recordings—even working out agreements with the cable provider—is a cause for stress, sources said.
It comes down to cost and cabling, said Don O’Neal, president and founder of O’Neal Consultants, a technology consulting firm. “If the cabling isn’t there to support (the device), to add it would be a very high cost,” he said. And most hotels don’t have the cables to support that high bandwidth transmission, he added.
It’s not just the added wires that make DVRs less than desirable, but hotels are limited to what they can record, Pinkham explained. It’s not like a residential DVR; hotels need to get a commercial-type license, and they have to adhere to Federal Communications Commission regulations about rebroadcasting to guests.
“Some carriers won’t let you record some shows via their bylaws … You give the guest an experience. If it’s less than their home, then they’ll be dissatisfied.”
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Don O'Neal |
This issue with DVRs, Pinkham said, is hotels have “just added 10-year-old technology to a property.” The biggest mistake he said is hoteliers are assuming guests want this, but “the guest isn’t asking for it.”
According to Pinkham, questions hoteliers should ask before adding DVRs include: How is the remote going to be integrated? Will the hotel room need two remotes—one for the DVR and one for the TV? Is the interface going to be intuitive? Can guests record two shows at the same time like they do at home? Who’s going to refresh the DVR when they leave? Is there a cabinet in which to put the device?
Seamlessly integrating DVRs into hotel rooms is a point of concern, Weiss agreed. “It has to be hidden, so it’s not visible to the guest,” he said. Also, wiping the device clean upon checkout presents a problem. But Weiss said the DVR is its own system and is able to “receive communication from our property-management system and it lets (the system) know when guests check out—it’s more of an interface than a propriety system,” he said.
However, at The Clarendon, Bethel said the hotel doesn’t have a system like that set up, and recorded TV shows sit on the DVR as guests check-in and check-out of rooms.
The future of technology
For Bethel, DVR technology is not where the industry or technology is headed. “Companies focusing on DVRs are probably behind the 8 ball. I think they’re behind the curve—behind the development of technology.”
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Josh Weiss |
“I think (adding DVRs) is a Pandora’s Box. It’s a wasted initiative,” Pinkham said.
Bethel and Pinkham agreed that instead of investing in DVR technology, hoteliers should start thinking about streaming content from sites such as Netflix or Hulu onto rooms’ TVs.
When Bethel replaces his DVR-compatible TVs, he's hoping there are opportunities with companies such as Netflix, Vudu, Hulu or Amazon to come up with revenue-sharing models with hotels.
The desire is to “not have to run cables to hotel rooms,” which saves a lot on labor, costs and “earth’s natural resources,” Bethel said.
But the other desire, he said “would be if everyone gets their video wirelessly.”
Better use of money
For Pinkham, it’s not about DVRs, DVDs or even 3-D TV, which is “a waste of money.” He said TVs should be all about guest interaction, and through touch-screen TVs guests will be able to order room service, make spa appointments or choose TV and movies to watch through streaming services. But, ultimately, it’s about bandwidth.
“Whatever we’re going to do in the guestroom, you have to have great bandwidth in the property. You need Internet bandwidth to do what you need to.
“More than nice amenities, people want high-speed Internet,” he said. “They don’t want to pay for it, they want it free all the time.”