For the global traveler and frequenter of luxury hotels, the comfortable bed, complimentary robe and expensive soap just aren’t cutting it. That’s why four- and five-star hotels are thinking television flat-panel, high-definition sets with hook-ups for wireless Internet connections, access to on-demand programming and the ability to book time at the hotel spa. “It is a new way of looking to increase customer satisfaction,” said Russell Reeder, president and COO of NxTV, a Woodland Hills company providing in-room entertainment. Founded 10 years ago during the nascent stage of the Internet, NxTV succeeds in a market typically difficult to enter because luxury hotel guests have high expectations. Companies offering Internet-based television help the hospitality industry catch up with guests’ demands for better technology, said Frank Wolfe, the CEO of trade organization Hospitality, Financial and Technology Professionals. “Generally speaking, adding IPTV (internet protocol television) as an amenity is a very cost-effective way for a hotel to offer its customers a wide variety of choices at affordable prices,” Wolfe said. NxTV systems can be found in 70 hotels in 14 countries with 60,000 rooms under contract. The company provides the inconspicuous set-top box and other equipment and in return splits with hotels the revenues generated from guest fees. NxTV landed on this year’s Inc. Top 500 fastest growing privately-owned companies list, with a 736 percent growth from 2003 ($1.1 million in revenues) to 2006 ($9.2 million in revenues). NxTV is owned by the Najafi Companies, the private equity arm of investment firm The Pivotal Group. Commercial IP media services offered by telecommunications giants Verizon and AT & T; are more in the public eye than the business-to-business offered by NxTV. Even with high-end chains as its clients including W Hotels, Marriott, Hyatt and St. Regis NxTV is not the biggest in-room entertainment provider. That distinction belongs to LodgeNet Entertainment Corp., which has 2 million hotel rooms in the U.S. and Canada using its interactive television and broadband services. Even so, with its digital distribution, NxTV has a big advantage over LodgeNet, which still uses an analog system that is quickly becoming old-fashioned, especially in light of a Federal Communications Commission order that no analog TV sets be made after February 2009. Another strength in the company’s product is that a single connection is needed to run e-mail, entertainment and appointment making. “Years before anyone was even thinking [about this], we were building something that was future proof,” Reeder said. Hotels get the additional benefit of using the system to brand itself with the guests by having the screen customized with a logo and include a short video on the services and amenities offered. NxTV adds new programming to keep the system fresh. Music lovers can turn to their favorite tunes with World Radio, made available earlier this year. Recently the company rolled out on-demand television shows streamed directly to hotel room television 24 hours after their network broadcast premieres. “It is all about customizing the stay,” said Brendan Carlin, general manager of The Mosaic Hotel in Beverly Hills that has used the NxTV system for about three years. While the luxury hotel market is the company’s customer base, expanding to lower-tier hotels is not out of the question. The mid-range market hotels look to the luxury market to see what is developing and often follow its lead, said Eric Stern, director of marketing and planning. “When those mid-range hotels make the investment in the technology, NxTV will be ready to serve them too,” Stern said. The system can be applied to other venues that place a premium on treating customers well, such as hospitals, cruise ships and hotel-condominium buildings. To eliminate the set-top boxes, the company is working with television manufacturers to include a NxTV set up in the drop-down box on the set-up menu, Reeder said.
