Hotels seek to benefit from reduced meetings budgets

Two weeks ago, we reported on a new survey that indicated many companies were turning to new kinds of virtual meetings technologies to replace face-to-face gatherings as travel budgets are increasingly squeezed. And last week, two of the world’s largest hotel companies – Marriott and Starwood – announced plans to deploy “telepresence suites” in some of their key properties worldwide. Marriott said it is working with AT&T Telepresence Solution to develop the new meeting rooms, while Starwood has taken on Tata Communications as its partner. However, both of those companies employ Cisco as the provider of the actual telepresence technology.

Marriott said the new telepresence suites will accommodate groups of less than 20 participants, who will be able to virtually meet with corresponding groups in similar suites. “By combining high-definition video, crisp, real-time audio – no delays – and interior design for telepresence suites, groups feel as if they are actually meeting together in the same room, even if they are thousands of miles apart,” Marriott said. Starwood noted that the suites, available on a per-use basis, will be especially attractive to companies that do not have similar technology in their own offices. “Because of the decentralized nature of business today, without public room deployments, telepresence can never achieve the critical mass needed to realize the full potential of this exciting video technology,” Starwood said. Arne Sorenson, president of Marriott International, predicted that telepresence “will create more business meetings, because people can travel shorter distances and easily connect with colleagues and clients around the world.”

Marriott said it will put telepresence suites at Marriott, JW Marriott and Renaissance properties in 25 cities worldwide, including New York, San Francisco, Washington, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Frankfurt and London. The first ones should be operating this fall, the company said. Starwood said it should have the technology available at 10 properties by the end of this year, including the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton on the Park in Sydney, Sheraton Centre Toronto, Westin Los Angeles Airport and W-Chicago City Center. In the future, Starwood said, it will expand the technology to hotels in Brussels, Paris, Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo.