Red Room Chronicles

I was recently afforded the privilege of getting a preview of the now public Plug In To Marriott campaign recently launched by Marriott Hotels. Some of the folks in Marriott public relations and advertising are watching the blog (Hi all!) and invited me to impart my opinion on the campaign.

I don’t really know a lick about advertising or public relations but I do know what I like in a hotel. What I saw and heard about the campaign from their new website at www.plugintomarriott.com looked really promising. Certain rooms at a growing list of Marriott hotels have what really amounts to a digital media center that will allow you to plug in and get the benefits of your various portable media devices. This media center also doubles as a very nice flat panel television.

So you can plug in your laptop and work via the flat screen tv display. You can plug in your mp3 player and take advantage of stereo sound throughout the room. You can also plug in a DVD player, digital camera or camcorder as well. Portable game systems are pluggable as well. The setup will definitely be a boon to folks like me who travel with gadgets. The camera and game options sound great for family vacations.

I welcome the addition of upgraded technology in hotel rooms. It really helps to be in a place that fits the digital lifestyle (if that’s up your alley) when you have to be away at home. With something like this the implementation is as important as the announcement though. The systems need to work. I’m sure that won’t be a problem. One potential issue I mentioned to the Marriott team involved cables. What if I forget or just don’t have the right cable? Would be nice to have some standard loaners available at the front desk.

The reservation process is affected here as well. I think it’s really important for people to be able to get a guarantee for these rooms ahead of time. If such a room is not available I think that’s okay. But a traveler should also be able to definitively reserve a plugged in room if one is available at the time of booking.

I also heard that Marriott is planning to provide a video tutorial on the system which will be accessible via the television. I think that’s a good idea so people can understand and get the most out of the capabilities of these new rooms.

One thing I would like to see associated with this effort which I forgot to mention while on the call with the Marriott team was RSS feeds. How about an RSS feed (or email updates) to provide updates on the list of hotels that have these special rooms? For the moment you can go to the Plug In website to view the list of 25 hotels that have added this very special digital amenity.