Items tagged with marriott
Marriott is putting a new twist on room service by delivering Samsung Gear VR headsets to guests. The new “VRoom Service” features a VR headset and headphones, along with virtual reality travel videos. Fire up the VRoom Service headset and you can explore Beijing from your hotel room in New York.The Marriott VRoom Service headset.“Travel expands our minds and helps push our imagination,” said Matthew Carroll, vice president, Marriott Hotels. “Our guests want to be in inventive spaces that help foster their creativity and thinking. VRoom combines storytelling with technology, two things that are important to next generation travelers.”Having access to a VR headset sounds like a much better way...
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You would have thought that companies would have wised up after Marriott was caught using unlicensed jamming equipment in conference rooms to block the Wi-Fi hotspots of its paying customers. Predictably, when hotel patrons would complain about not being able to access the Internet with their smartphones or mobile Wi-Fi hotspots, hotel personnel would offer their own high-speed Internet services at a cost of $250 to $1,000. Needless to say, the FCC wasn’t amused by Marriott’s actions at its Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee, so it stepped in and fined Marriott $600,000. Following the Marriott incident, the FCC noted that it was witnessing a “disturbing trend”...
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Give Marriott International a half-hearted gold star for finally committing to leaving Wi-Fi hotspots alone. Bruce Hoffmeister, Global Chief Information Office for Marriott, issued a statement saying the hotel chain has decided to withdraw its petition seeking "direction" from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on what legal Wi-Fi blocking efforts might be at its disposable. "Marriott International has decided to withdraw as a party to the petition seeking direction from the FCC on legal Wi-Fi security measures. Our intent was to protect personal data in Wi-Fi hotspots for large conferences," Hoffmeister said. "We thought we were doing the right thing asking the FCC to provide guidance,...
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After being hit with a $600,000 fine by the Federal Communications Commission over its Wi-Fi blocking efforts, the Marriott International thought better of its ill-advised policy and vowed to no longer block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of its managed hotels. Score a point for consumers, and kudos to the FCC, which has now taken things a step further by outright prohibiting people and businesses from intentionally interfering with Wi-Fi hotspots.In an FCC Enforcement Advisory issued this week, the FCC noted a "disturbing trend" by hotels and other commercial establishments whereby they've taken it upon themselves to block wireless users from utilizing their own Wi-Fi...
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Up until last week, Marriott had the not-so-bright idea of blocking Wi-Fi devices in order to force travelers and conference attendees to pay for its high-speed Internet services, which in some cases could run as much as $1,000. Wiser heads prevailed -- a $600,000 fine by the FCC tends to do that -- and rather than focus on Wi-Fi hotspots, the hotel chain is now reportedly piloting a service that allows guests to access Netflix and other streaming media services through their televisions. According to Bloomberg, the Marriott is testing the service at eight of its locations. By offering guests access to Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, and so forth, Marriott is essentially modernizing its in-room entertainment...
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It seems as though cooler heads have prevailed over at Marriott International. The hotel chain has decided to drop plans that would block customers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hotspots -- Internet services that they have already paid for -- and push them to use overpriced Marriott Internet services. Marriott posted the following message to its official site this week: Marriott International listens to its customers, and we will not block guests from using their personal Wi-Fi devices at any of our managed hotels. Marriott remains committed to protecting the security of Wi-Fi access in meeting and conference areas at our hotels. We will continue to look to the FCC to clarify...
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We’ve all encountered this issue. You check into your hotel room and attempt to connect to the complementary Wi-Fi network only to find that it’s slow as molasses, transporting you back to a time when a 56K modem was considered hot stuff. And even when you are forced to pay a daily “Resort Fee” to access Wi-Fi, download speeds typically aren’t much better and really bog down during evening hours. Marriott’s Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee came under fire from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) back in October, when an investigation concluded that the resort was installing jamming equipment to block Wi-Fi signals of guests that were using site conference...
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