Your customers asked for it, modern hospitality philosophy required it and now you have one in your Hotel: A Business Center. Your Guest now has access to
Internet to read and write e-mails, surf Web for latest news and they can work in Word, Power Point and Excel. For your Guest’s convenience (and maybe according to company standards) you have also added a printer, fax and copier. You are now ready for 21st Century traveler. Or are you?Philipsburg, Pa, Thursday, March 18, 2004
Satisfied with your latest implementation one day, on one of your daily rounds, you notice that Computer has a white piece of paper stuck to monitor. Curious, you walk up and read: “Computer Out of Order”. Checking into it, you find out that this is not first time computer has been down, and furthermore, there have been a number of alarming complaints from Guests:
“Computer froze in middle of my work” “I walked up to check my e-mail and suddenly looked at obscene pictures on computer screen” “I noticed stuff from one of your previous Guests on computer? Will my info remain on computer too?” “I think you have a virus on your computer because this window kept popping up, saying,…” And list goes on.
You also find out that your very dedicated manager spends (a very valuable) hour each day trying to fix and clean computer. And, a couple of times, a computer technician had to solve a problem for $80 / hour.
"It is a mistake to underestimate process of making computer and internet access available to your Guests ", states Ron Koning, Vice President of SurferQuest, a supplier of Public Internet Computers and Software. "The Hospitality industry is forced to offer this amenity, so they put a computer in their Business Center, without thinking a lot about it. Reality hits when complaints start piling up, managers get frustrated and maintenance cost doubles or triples budget. And that is just visible problem."
