As a lot of you may know, many hotels throughout the U.S. have a very limited selection of cable/satellite channels. Most of them only have like around 20-30, kind of like cable in the old days. There are some that have real cable, but most don't. I'm pretty sure the ones that don't have real cable use satellite. They usually will have all the major locals, but not so much the smaller ones like MyTV, and the independents. However, I was recently in a hotel in NJ that had NYC locals: ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the CW, but it did not have PBS. Has anyone here ever seen that before?
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Any hotels not have all the locals?
- Thread starter ssetta
- Start date
Last year I stayed at an Econo Lodge in Indianapolis and the only local channels from Indy they offered were WRTV, WISH, WTHR and FOX 59 and nothing else. No PBS, not even WTTV channel 4 !!!! Instead of WTTV the hotel on their channel 4 offered some sort of promotional video that ran in a continous loop telling you what a wonderful city Indianapolis is and why you should move to Indianapolis. The film BTW was dated because one scene featured a shot of a Zayre Discount Department Store and that chain had been defunct since 1990 (?).
Anyway I don't know what set-up the hotel was using. Maybe a mix of cable and satellite, I really don't know.
I have heard that some Las Vegas hotels don't even offer a TV in their room at all and some that do, rather than offering local TV channels its pretty much travel stuff ( things to see and do in Las Vegas ), gambling channels, movie channels and of course the Weather Channel. The purpose is to get you out of the room and into the casino and the shows. I never been to vegas myself so I can't confirm that but according to a lot of people I know who has been there, that is what they have told me. One friend of mine told me she didn't even know Las Vegas had their own local TV LOL
Anyway I don't know what set-up the hotel was using. Maybe a mix of cable and satellite, I really don't know.
I have heard that some Las Vegas hotels don't even offer a TV in their room at all and some that do, rather than offering local TV channels its pretty much travel stuff ( things to see and do in Las Vegas ), gambling channels, movie channels and of course the Weather Channel. The purpose is to get you out of the room and into the casino and the shows. I never been to vegas myself so I can't confirm that but according to a lot of people I know who has been there, that is what they have told me. One friend of mine told me she didn't even know Las Vegas had their own local TV LOL
mleach said:
I've never stayed in a Vegas hotel that didn't have a very basic selection of the locals (ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox). Beyond that, it's hit and miss - I've stayed in some with no PBS, lots with no CW/My/Univision/etc.
Aside from Motel 6, which almost always has its own in-house "cable" system with just the Big 4, I find an increasing number of lower-end chain motels now offer most or all of the local cable lineup, usually with one or two channels replaced by HBO or local tourism info. Ironically, the more expensive the hotel, the more likely the channel lineup will be more limited.
I've been known to call ahead and check on channel lineups before booking, when I'm especially concerned about airchecking a specific obscure station. Nowadays, as long as I can get a decent DTV signal, I usually bypass the hotel system and just use the DTV tuner in my DVD recorder to grab what I need over the air - it almost always ends up looking better that way, as hotel cable systems tend not to be too careful about the technical details.
...of course, this was 28 years back, but when I stayed at the Holiday Inn near Tiger Stadium in Detroit in June of 1980, I was astonished to see they only had the Detroit-Windsor (and Toledo!) VHFs. Most likely still had an old aerial on the roof of the hotel...
Scott Fybush said:
And this is coming from a man who would easily hold the world's record time for checking into a hotel room just two minutes before a local newscast is about to begin, and still have the thing set up to record on time.
It is a lot easier to check the local DTs and their transmitting status, and the hotel's proximity, vs. trying to elicit a cable lineup out of a hotel front desk...
Last year while visiting Anaheim, I was surprised that the in house cable system at the Hampton Inn (on South Harbor) had virtually all of the LA stations EXCEPT KDOC/56, the Anaheim licensed Independent station. I had to use my color Watchman to watch KDOC. Nice lineup. A really fun station to watch.
Interesting subject which nicely highlights a pet peeve of mine - hotels with cheap-o versions of Direct TV/Dish service. I can't tell you how many hotels I have stayed in that have 4 ESPN channels, the Golf Channel, yet lack a lot of local channels.
For some reason, hotels in the Chicago area are particularly bad about this. I have stayed at several Marriott properties in the metro area (even a Residence Inn - which usually has real cable) and every single one lacks local independent WCIU and local PBS WTTW. They have "WISE-TV" (a secondary channel) as their PBS affiliate instead. And forget the digital-only "Me TV" which I would love to see.
But, it's not just limited to the Marriott chain, I have also stayed a multiple Holiday Inns in the Chicago area and found the exact same thing. In fact, I have yet to stay at a hotel in that area that offers cable from the local system. Some don't even offer the MNT affiliate, My 50! Very annoying. One Courtyard by Marriott hotel I stayed in out there did not even have the Discovery Channel. Golf Channel, yes; Discovery and many local channels, NO. I was pretty irked to miss out on Deadliest Catch, while channels like ESPN Classic, Golf and Shop NBC were offered!
Not sure what is up around Chicago, perhaps Comcast is not offering deals to hotels in that area. There is definitely something going on there.
The comment about cheaper hotels often having better TV lineups is quite true....to an extent. The sweet spot seems to be in the $80-100 range. If you go too cheap (Red Roof, Motel 6) then the TV offerings are absolutely dismal. However, the expensive full-service hotels seem to be pretty bad when it comes to TV as well. At least in the US. Canadian hotels have much better cable than typically offered here, as do hotels in Latin America.
Best bet domestically seems to be staying in a place like a Comfort Inn or Best Western, where full local cable is often available. Certain Holiday Inns offer local cable, and Residence Inns (outside of Chicago) usually do too.
For some reason, hotels in the Chicago area are particularly bad about this. I have stayed at several Marriott properties in the metro area (even a Residence Inn - which usually has real cable) and every single one lacks local independent WCIU and local PBS WTTW. They have "WISE-TV" (a secondary channel) as their PBS affiliate instead. And forget the digital-only "Me TV" which I would love to see.
But, it's not just limited to the Marriott chain, I have also stayed a multiple Holiday Inns in the Chicago area and found the exact same thing. In fact, I have yet to stay at a hotel in that area that offers cable from the local system. Some don't even offer the MNT affiliate, My 50! Very annoying. One Courtyard by Marriott hotel I stayed in out there did not even have the Discovery Channel. Golf Channel, yes; Discovery and many local channels, NO. I was pretty irked to miss out on Deadliest Catch, while channels like ESPN Classic, Golf and Shop NBC were offered!
Not sure what is up around Chicago, perhaps Comcast is not offering deals to hotels in that area. There is definitely something going on there.
The comment about cheaper hotels often having better TV lineups is quite true....to an extent. The sweet spot seems to be in the $80-100 range. If you go too cheap (Red Roof, Motel 6) then the TV offerings are absolutely dismal. However, the expensive full-service hotels seem to be pretty bad when it comes to TV as well. At least in the US. Canadian hotels have much better cable than typically offered here, as do hotels in Latin America.
Best bet domestically seems to be staying in a place like a Comfort Inn or Best Western, where full local cable is often available. Certain Holiday Inns offer local cable, and Residence Inns (outside of Chicago) usually do too.
I travel for business and there is one particular hotel I stay at all the time. They use Directv as their "cable" service. The funny thing is their set top boxes are programmed incorrectly and one channel still shows the old "TNN" logo instead of Spike. And another channel that is labeled E! is actually showing a Directv Info Channel (the one that teaches you how to use a DVR) ;D
They carry all the Washington DC locals, and Comcast Sports Net, but not MASN.
They carry all the Washington DC locals, and Comcast Sports Net, but not MASN.
mleach said:
I stayed at The Luxor in Vegas about 2 years ago. There was a TV in the room with probably 20-30 channels IIRC. The thing with Vegas is, it's no longer just a gambling destination. They actually told us that more people travel there now for shopping, dining, and entertainment than for gambling. Which may be true since nobody in my party of 10 gambled during our four day stay.
Scott Fybush said:
It's interesting you mentioned this, because I remember staying at this one hotel in Cape Cod that did have the real cable system, but if you can believe it, it was actually the main local PBS (WGBH) that was replaced with HBO. I couldn't understand why they would do that. And from what I understand, most hotels on the Cape have real cable. This was the Sheraton in Eastham.
This is a very interesting topic, as this varies at almost every hotel. I travel a lot, most weekends during the winter, and I am sometimes amazed by how little some hotels offer, compared to others.
I was in Fairfax, VA in March, and we stayed at a brand-new Holiday Inn Express. It outfitted all of its rooms with new HDTVs, and you'd expect it to have a full cable line-up. However, the system had only around 20 channels, with no My20 (which meant no ACC tournament), no Comcast SportsNet, no MASN, no ESPN2 (I believe), and I don't think we had PBS, either.
Generally, when you go to a smaller town, they are more likely to have a larger cable lineup. I stayed in one recently in Emporia, VA that had the entire Comcast lineup.
Also, the hotels in Athens, GA are usually good with it, as you get almost all of the Charter lineup on those systems. In Chicago, I have never gotten WTTW there, because at one of the hotels we stayed at, they put the DirecTV basics channel over PBS.
Still, many hotels are stuck in long-term contracts with LodgeNet that they signed late in the 1990s and early this decade, with Nintendo 64 games, and the On Demand features which are years behind what you get even with Comcast. They say they have the sports packages from DirecTV, but I haven't seen a hotel that has any of those packages.
I was in Fairfax, VA in March, and we stayed at a brand-new Holiday Inn Express. It outfitted all of its rooms with new HDTVs, and you'd expect it to have a full cable line-up. However, the system had only around 20 channels, with no My20 (which meant no ACC tournament), no Comcast SportsNet, no MASN, no ESPN2 (I believe), and I don't think we had PBS, either.
Generally, when you go to a smaller town, they are more likely to have a larger cable lineup. I stayed in one recently in Emporia, VA that had the entire Comcast lineup.
Also, the hotels in Athens, GA are usually good with it, as you get almost all of the Charter lineup on those systems. In Chicago, I have never gotten WTTW there, because at one of the hotels we stayed at, they put the DirecTV basics channel over PBS.
Still, many hotels are stuck in long-term contracts with LodgeNet that they signed late in the 1990s and early this decade, with Nintendo 64
games, and the On Demand features which are years behind what you get even with Comcast. They say they have the sports packages from DirecTV, but I haven't seen a hotel that has any of those packages.I've stayed in 8 hotels in Las Vegas (mid to low prices, mostly downtown) and none had cable. Just a handful of satellite offerings; ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, I think they all had at least one Spanish channel. (One had Telemundo but not Univision.) Maybe one other local, but not all local stations. (I watch almost no TV while in Vegas, so I'm not that sure of the lineups.)
Have any of you come across hotels offering The Hotel Network? http://www.thehotelnetworks.com/index.html
They offer a package via ku-band: MSNBC, TruTV, Versus, National Geographic, Fox News, Weather Channel, CNBC, History International, Biography, A&E. On their website, they list many major hotel chains they have as customers. I assume the hotel has to get ESPN from another source.
Have any of you come across hotels offering The Hotel Network? http://www.thehotelnetworks.com/index.html
They offer a package via ku-band: MSNBC, TruTV, Versus, National Geographic, Fox News, Weather Channel, CNBC, History International, Biography, A&E. On their website, they list many major hotel chains they have as customers. I assume the hotel has to get ESPN from another source.
Red Roof has a LodgeNet contract chainwide, I think, and since they're now co-owned, I imagine Motel 6 is the same. If you're looking for a decent lineup, stay away from them.
One other problem you may run into...if there's a relatively new RSN, hotels are less likely to carry it if they aren't getting it via a regular expanded basic cable lineup. I've been told that many hotels around here don't carry SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland Indians), which just started in 2006.
And even if they have a TWC cable connection, TWC moved STO up to analog 76 this year...how likely is it that a hotel has manually added this channel since the last time they did TV channel scanning? Unlikely.
As for me, it's frustrating when hotels decide to cover a local non-network station or cable outlet to bring me HBO - but pass a home shopping channel without problem.
One other problem you may run into...if there's a relatively new RSN, hotels are less likely to carry it if they aren't getting it via a regular expanded basic cable lineup. I've been told that many hotels around here don't carry SportsTime Ohio (Cleveland Indians), which just started in 2006.
And even if they have a TWC cable connection, TWC moved STO up to analog 76 this year...how likely is it that a hotel has manually added this channel since the last time they did TV channel scanning? Unlikely.
As for me, it's frustrating when hotels decide to cover a local non-network station or cable outlet to bring me HBO - but pass a home shopping channel without problem.
ssetta said:
Actually, the U.S. hotels I've stayed in the past 10-12 years seem to have fewer than those I stayed in before. Although my observation suffers from a small sample, it seems that many hotels have went from offering a normal cable TV package (provided by the local cable company) to getting a specialized service like OnCommand or LodgeNet (which actually merged not too long ago). The reason for this is simple: you make a LOT more money on a 15-channel system selling $12 on-demand Hollywood movies and porn videos than on a 50-channel system with no on-demand movies. And even if the 50 channel system does have video on demand, there's a very good chance added channel choice will deter customers from ordering overpriced movies.
A cheap motel in I was at in Roseville, MN lacked local independent station KSTC 45 (NOT a cheapo shopping channel like it was 10 years ago, but a fairly high-quality independent owned by KSTP with a lot of local sporting events) and PBS station KTCI 17 (tpt17), which always seems to be airing weather radar or traffic information, so I can't blame them on that one. The line-up at this place (or another in the same town) was pitiful to the extreme - they had about 18 channels, and FOUR of them were: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS. Now tell me....can it get any worse?
I have a couple of experiences that I could offer...
Around the 2004 holidays (between Christmas and New Year's), I was staying in one of the Indian-owned hotel-casinos in northern San Diego County, and we were there for about three days. As far as the TV offerings, the hotel offered local Channels 6 (Fox), 8 (CBS), 10 (ABC), 39 (NBC), and 69 (The WB)...no PBS (15), UPN (49), or the local indy (KUSI 51). Also offered were ESPN2, ESPNews, TNT, TBS, HBO, one other movie channel, and several Music Choice channels (most of them pop and standards music). They had pay-per-view movies (including the adult ones), but of course those cost extra.
About a year later or so, I stayed with some friends at a higher-end motel near where I currently live. They offered the local basic cable lineup from the area Time Warner system, plus HBO and another movie network occuping the blank channels in the basic channel lineup (in the Channel 70-99 range).
Around the 2004 holidays (between Christmas and New Year's), I was staying in one of the Indian-owned hotel-casinos in northern San Diego County, and we were there for about three days. As far as the TV offerings, the hotel offered local Channels 6 (Fox), 8 (CBS), 10 (ABC), 39 (NBC), and 69 (The WB)...no PBS (15), UPN (49), or the local indy (KUSI 51). Also offered were ESPN2, ESPNews, TNT, TBS, HBO, one other movie channel, and several Music Choice channels (most of them pop and standards music). They had pay-per-view movies (including the adult ones), but of course those cost extra.
About a year later or so, I stayed with some friends at a higher-end motel near where I currently live. They offered the local basic cable lineup from the area Time Warner system, plus HBO and another movie network occuping the blank channels in the basic channel lineup (in the Channel 70-99 range).
When I was traveling in the Carolinas last year, all of the hotels I stayed at ($80-100 range by the Interstate) were hooked up to cable. The Holiday Inn Express (where I did not wake up smarter due to the lousy matress) had a VOD system replacing what was on Cable Channel 2 (in this case WBTV Charlotte - the hotel was in the Greenville/Spartanburg DMA). A credit card swiper was attached to the telephone where you ordered the movies. The picture quailty of the channel (which runs previews when a movie is not playing) was very poor. I saw a box behind the TV that drives the VOD system, and it had only two coax connectors and a power cord - no switches. At $7.95 a movie (phase between first-run theater and DVD), I took a pass.
Most higher-end hotels now have systems with HD and VOD that are menu driven (like your cable box). These systems require a lot of equipment (including a satellite reciever or tuner for each channel, a computer for the VOD and menu systems) that requires a 10x14 space (and adequate HVAC equipment to prevent overheating).
Smaller hotels have cable because it is much simpler, much cheaper, and there is no equipment for the hotel to maintain. Those that do run there own systems have to have a satellite reciever for each channel, thus the lineup limitation.
As for Chicago...the reason hotels do not have direct cable is because Comcast is 100% digital there. Thus hotels are forced to either do the satellite thing, or install digital cable convertors on each TV. I suspect Comcast has not figured out how to handle hotels, and most hotels in the Chicago area have gone to a satellite solution. As more and more cable systems go digital, hotels will have to make decisions on what to do.
Hopefully the cable companies will make digital boxes available to hotels, which would be a lot easier for the smaller hotels to deal with (not to mention guest would have access to most of the 200+ channels the cable company provides). If not, hotels will be forced into installing MATV systems in their hotels (or no cable at all...just the local DT channels that can be recieved).
And the local channels they do chose will be the main channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox). They will not pick PBS, CW, MyNet, Ion, TBN, or any other station because they believe no one watches them.
Most higher-end hotels now have systems with HD and VOD that are menu driven (like your cable box). These systems require a lot of equipment (including a satellite reciever or tuner for each channel, a computer for the VOD and menu systems) that requires a 10x14 space (and adequate HVAC equipment to prevent overheating).
Smaller hotels have cable because it is much simpler, much cheaper, and there is no equipment for the hotel to maintain. Those that do run there own systems have to have a satellite reciever for each channel, thus the lineup limitation.
As for Chicago...the reason hotels do not have direct cable is because Comcast is 100% digital there. Thus hotels are forced to either do the satellite thing, or install digital cable convertors on each TV. I suspect Comcast has not figured out how to handle hotels, and most hotels in the Chicago area have gone to a satellite solution. As more and more cable systems go digital, hotels will have to make decisions on what to do.
Hopefully the cable companies will make digital boxes available to hotels, which would be a lot easier for the smaller hotels to deal with (not to mention guest would have access to most of the 200+ channels the cable company provides). If not, hotels will be forced into installing MATV systems in their hotels (or no cable at all...just the local DT channels that can be recieved).
And the local channels they do chose will be the main channels (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox). They will not pick PBS, CW, MyNet, Ion, TBN, or any other station because they believe no one watches them.
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