Publication: Hotelier
Section: Operations
Author: Nestor E. Arellano
Date: September/October 2000

Today's discerning hotel guests are looking for amenities that make being on the road feel more like being at home.

Imagine this scenario: you're on a business trip and you arrive dead tired into town; you've got an important business meeting in six short hours and the options before you as you enter your hotel room are varied. You can shut the drapes, get under the covers and catch some sleep. Or you can activate the calming pool water fountain and let its softly trickling waters lull you to sleep. If you're a workaholic, you can plug in your laptop to the suite's data port and immediately fire off a few e-mails, print out your speech for tomorrow and then book yourself an appointment for an in-suite yoga session.

From aromatherapy oils and loofah brushes to coffee makers, wide-screen TVs and high-speed Internet access, today's growing army of road warriors and increasingly discerning leisure travellers are looking for amenities that make being on the road feel more like being at home.

A Natural High

In days gone by, hotels offered a standard package of shampoos and conditioners, and if you were lucky, maybe a shower cap. But today's customers are looking for environmentally friendly products, as well as natural ingredients and scents. So says Anne Larcade, general manager of the Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ont. "We set up focus groups, listened and found that our guests are concerned about the environment."

The 425-room property provides Aveda facial soaps, bath soap, body creams and revitalizing shampoos. Cost for the amenities is $1.39 per room. Additionally, the resort's pricier rooms offer shoe mitts and mouthwash. "Our clientele is not particular about shower caps and mending kits, but we have a card in the rooms to inform guests that whatever brand of toiletries they prefer is available upon request," adds Larcade.

Calgary's Sheraton Suite's Eau Claire chose the Body Shop line of products for its suites, featuring body soaps, shampoos, body creams, as well as bath salts. According to Tania Cook, the property's Marketing manager: "We wanted to provide guests with products that they recognize and equate with quality and concern for the environment."

Some chains, however, such as Toronto-based Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, prefer to use non-branded toiletries that are "custom-formulated, high quality and hypo-allergenic," says Mike Taylor, Communications co-coordinator. Standard rooms provide three types of soaps, bath gel, shampoos, conditioners and body lotions as well as shoe mitts and shower caps." Upgraded rooms, on the other hand also feature mouthwash, sunscreens, lip balm and loofah sponges. Expenses for toiletries are about $2 per room on an average.

The Hotel LeSoleil , a 119-room luxury boutique hotel in downtown Vancouver, also offers Aveda amenities, but goes one step further by providing other amenities women appreciate, such as a body care kit that includes cotton balls, nail file and clippers, and a sewing kit. To soothe the soul and charm the senses, the hotel also offers a selection of natural aromatic oils for aromatherapy.

And to appeal to the growing number of females travelling, many hotels have introduced various skin and hair care products, with curling irons quickly becoming the norm. Le Soleil, however, has gone one step further by introducing three "Elle" Suites which feature office supplies, exotic essentials oils to rejuvenate and relax guests, as well as panty hose (available in three different colours and two different sizes). Occupants can also book an in-suite yoga instructor or request a jogging partner.

At the Suite Eau Claire in Calgary, guests staying on the executive club floors have access to a digital music system that plays uninterrupted music from a satellite feed. Meanwhile, south of the border where the rich and famous hang their heads, the Beverly Hills Hilton's Stress-Less Room comes equipped with a large screen TV, CD player/VCR as well as yoga and meditation videos. The room also has a calming pool fountain, which serves as a decor accent and provides soothing sounds of lowing water. Instead of a clock radio, the pool has a Sound & Light Therapy Alarm and massage tools. The hotel also features a Hilton Health-Fit Room, especially geared for the health-conscious with a Reebok Cycle machine, exercise resistance tubing, fitness magazines, a health-oriented mini-bar and jogging trail maps.

While the television set is increasingly become the focal point of the entertainment and computer centres, according to Deerhurst's Larcade, "The days of the 19 - and 20-in. televisions sets are over. We're seeing a trend in hotels to provide what guests have at home. Many of the hotels have specifically requested the larger screen TVs, while other like Le Soleil provides two 25-in. television units, with options for pay movies, as a way to cater to companies which might have two colleagues sharing a room to cut costs.

Ways of the Wired

Today's discerning customers and the daily advancements in technology are pushing properties to rethink and restructure their tech offerings. Whereas technology used to be employed to run or manage a property, thousands of dollars are now being spent to provide guests with the high-tech gadgets and access they have become accustomed to in their homes and offices. "Over 85 per cent of our guests travel with a laptop,: says Calgary's Suites Eau Claire's Cook.

Most hotels today offer data ports that allow guests to plug in their laptops and access the Internet. Some even have rooms equipped with fax machines, printers and scanners.

When Heather Crosby started working in the hotel industry four years ago as a concierge, she never dreamed she would one day be helping a Saudi Arabian businessman hook up his laptop. "The job seems to be shifting from booking dinner reservations and car rentals to connecting computers and accessing the Web," says Crosby, one of the Calgary Eau Claire's concierges trained to serve as a "techno concierge."

The company that provides the hotel with Internet access also provides a three-week training for hotel personnel that enables employees to assist guests on some basic connectivity needs. "Our Concierge department is technologically trained on the systems in our rooms. Some of the training that they received covers a three-month period. So they are not only qualified concierges but also "Technological Concierges," says Reyes. Deerhurst Resort also has a dedicated information technology person and at least five trained personnel for its "Wishes and Wow Department," a newly formed department that handles all sorts of requests from leisure to business and corporate computer needs.

While not all amenities appeal to all guests, a good package of "little extras" goes a long way to help hotels compete for new guests and return guest alike. As Kirby Payne, president of Minneapolis-based American Hospitality Management Company, says: "I'm old enough to remember when direct dial in-room phones and colour televisions were sought-after amenities, and U.S.A Today, guest-room voice-mail any pay-per-view movies hadn't been though of." One can only imagine what tomorrow's amenities will include.