Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
One thing I've been seeing pop up in hotels of all budget ranges over the last decade or so is a trend of not only replacing tube TV's with updated LCD displays (which is good), but hotels abandoning normal cable systems for this thing called LodgeNet.
Basically, these systems have about ten to twenty channels, versus the normal 60 or 70+ or so on cable. Not only that, but they are in standard definition despite the TV's HD capability, resulting in a stretched-out, fuzzy picture. They often do not carry certain local channels and sometimes carry none! However, they do have $10 pay-per-view movies.
Has anybody made it a point to see whether hotels and motels have LodgeNet or other such services, or the more expanded basic cable plus HBO? As normal cable systems shut off their analog signals in favor of all-digital all-encrypted service that requires a box in each room, I would expect more hotels to switch to these kind of services.
Often, it's the more expensive three-star-and-up hotels that have it too, although I found that the Days Inn in Roseville, MN had it.
I've done some work on these systems. I don't recall if "Lodgenet" was one of them specifically or not.. But it's a.. The best way I can describe it is a crippleware version of DirecTV or Dish.
We hooked up with Dish to do some of the cabling for these at a place I used to work.. Basically, somewhere back in the bowels of the hotel, there's a room with about 20 Dish tuners, one for each channel, that feeds to a main server, which feeds to each room. The hotel is charged based on the number of channels that they serve, not on the number of rooms they have.
I'm operating off 6 year old memories here, but that's the best I can remember about it. "Lodgenet" and the like are served by one of the big three.. DirecTv, Dish or the local cable company.
I thought the deal with LodgeNet was they (hotels) could select the channels they want to provide, but they only pay on the total number of room nights they have ie: ( 100 room X 85% occupancy rate X 30 Day X Some cost per Night ) - Hotel Share of pay per View = Total Bill
One thing I've been seeing pop up in hotels of all budget ranges over the last decade or so is a trend of not only replacing tube TV's with updated LCD displays (which is good), but hotels abandoning normal cable systems for this thing called LodgeNet.
Basically, these systems have about ten to twenty channels, versus the normal 60 or 70+ or so on cable. Not only that, but they are in standard definition despite the TV's HD capability, resulting in a stretched-out, fuzzy picture. They often do not carry certain local channels and sometimes carry none! However, they do have $10 pay-per-view movies.
Has anybody made it a point to see whether hotels and motels have LodgeNet or other such services, or the more expanded basic cable plus HBO? As normal cable systems shut off their analog signals in favor of all-digital all-encrypted service that requires a box in each room, I would expect more hotels to switch to these kind of services.
Often, it's the more expensive three-star-and-up hotels that have it too, although I found that the Days Inn in Roseville, MN had it.
Marriott used to do that and have perhaps 20 channels. Customers HATED it as they never had the game that people wanted to see on TV on a given night. What I could never understand about it is that Marriott's target audience was a group that would have a full cable set up at home. I think that they were selling more pay per view and porn with Lodge Net and that represented a major source of revenue.
One of the advantages of Super 8 is that thy generally have FULL cable so we can watch our favorite programming.
I don't go to hotels to watch TV, and when I turn it on for a bit to watch the news in the morning, I don't really care about the picture.
I've stayed in hundreds of hotels, many with Lodgenet, and never have I not been able to get network TV stations.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
