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Hotels on the Web
Kirby's Korner · August 20, 1999

One of my favorite companies to watch in the interactive travel sector is Hilton Hotels. The reason is simple. More than any other company I can think of, Hilton is always trying something new.

Sometimes the effort doesn't pay off. But as I've explained before, Hilton is leading the charge to provide high-speed Internet access in business hotels. Hilton also is one of a handful of hotel chains that realizes it isn't enough to have a Web site and make your reservations system available on that site and through the global distribution systems used by travel agents and the larger online agencies. If there's a waxed string connecting two tin cans anywhere in the world, Hilton will try to sell reservations through it.

It is with some disappointment, therefore, that I report Hilton's Web didn't take top honors in a recent look I took at hotel sites. That prize has to go to Marriott.

There's one overriding reason for this. More than any other hotel company I looked at, Marriott provides site visitors with destination information. It has teamed with travel guide provider Weissmann Travel Reports to offer detailed information on around 20 cities worldwide where it has properties. The surprising thing is not that Marriott has done this but, rather, that other hotel companies haven't.

Many hotels, including Holiday Inn and Hyatt Hotels and Resorts, list nearby attractions on pages for individual properties. Only Marriott gives restaurant reviews, hints about night life, suggestions of places to see, and descriptions of business customs.

If I'm looking for information on how to dress for a meeting or what to see while vacationing, I'd be pleasantly disposed to a hotel company that offers me that information at its Web site. Partnering with someone like Weissmann cannot be that difficult technically or that expensive for a company the size of a major hotel chain.

I started looking at the hotel Web sites with the presumption that the sites would be designed to reflect the audience the chains are aimed at. Four Seasons Hotels, for example, would have a decidedly different look than Motel 6.

For the most part, that's true. But once you get past the look and feel of the sites, they all offer much of the same information and services.

Motel 6, a latecomer to the Web, doesn't handle reservations online; all the other sites I checked out do. (You can order a print catalog of Motel 6 locations online, however, for those cross-country treks.) The site is also alone in not providing more information than anyone would want about the chains' frequent traveler programs.

Perhaps because of its newness to the online world, Motel 6's site is clunky, relying heavily on slow-loading graphics. Leave the light off for this one!

Radisson Hotels Worldwide has long had a frames-based site that, once you get used to the unusual design, is easy to navigate. More recently, it has added a lower-tech mirror to the site that cleanest, easiest-to-navigate hotel location on the Web.

Howard Johnson, reflecting its working-class image, also has an easy-to-navigate site. Like almost all the other hotels, it features information on special promotions and planning meetings. Visitors can learn about specials for seniors and children, groups not well represented elsewhere.

Hilton has one fun feature, a "millennium countdown clock" that tells you to the second how long until Jan. 1, 2000. I didn't take the time to figure out which time zone the clock was keyed to.

I've never understood why Choice Hotels International -- which operates the Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, Clarion Hotel and Resort, Sleep Inn, Econo Lodge, and Rodeway Inn brands -- opted for a umbrella site for its properties. Who besides people in the travel trade know to look for Choice Hotels, not Sleep Inn? It's a decision the company made early on, and it has stayed with the, um, choice.

To its credit, Choice is with Hilton at the forefront of trying to get its properties in front of guests no matter how they decide to connect online.

You can turn to individual hotel Web sites to get information on special deals, or you can go to a major online agency such as Expedia.com or Travelocity.com for clues about surrounding locations. The shame is that more hotel companies haven't joined Marriott in offering both at a single location.

David Kirby is the editor of the Interactive Travel Report. His column appears on Sunday. You can reach him at dbkirby@pressroom.com.