Any hotels not have all the locals?

[Markxxx]

Well I've worked in hotels most of my life, my last major hotel job was systems admin for the Westin in Chicago.

Most hotels only have limited channels, such 10 or 20. Some chains like Starwood have nationwide contracts. Starwood (Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, etc) had a contract with ESPN and the Weather Channel. They had to carry those channel, even at the expense of bumping a local.

Usually the locals are brought in off an antenna, but it varies. Also most larger hotels reseve a channel for check out, a channel for hotel info and a channel for meetings.

Our regional general manager, loved the Cartoon Channel so we had to have it at any hotel in Starwood where he had an office. So you can see a channel may be nothing more than the whimsy of what the GM wanted.

Like at the Westin, our engineer would put any channel I asked, cause no one cared. I would read comment cards and ask him to adjust the channel line up as long as it didn't conflict with the contracted channels or the in house channels.

Red Roof Inn and Motel 6 are owned by the same company (Accor) so it would make sense their systems would be similar.

Days Inn are franchised so they can have great line ups or poor lines. Back when I traveled a lot I found rural hotels had more stations as they could tap into cable, since they have to have cable to get any channel. But urban hotels didn't want the expense of cable, since most people only stay a few days, if they miss a channel it's not a deal breaker.

So often there is no rhyme or reason to channel line ups. Outside of a few contracted channels, and favourite channels (most hotels like ESPN, TWC and Headline News as they appeal to travelers) it's often just the whim of the GM, engineer or which way the master on the antenna can point and pick up the most stations.

 

[mjlarochelle]

A hotel I stayed at in midtown Manhattan had the entire cable lineup, although NY1 wasn't available because that particular cable system doesn't offer NY1 in the first place. As a result though I saw all the locals, plus WLNY, WRNN, WMBC, WLIW, and NJN. This was in early 2007 so WLNY was transmitting only in digital by then, and yet they had the worst picture quality of all the stations on the dial. Looked like it was microwaved in from really far away.

A motel I have stayed at a couple times between Bancroft and Pembroke, Ontario uses two outdoor antennas. One is a VHF-UHF combo pointed toward the Camp-Fortune transmitter in Gatineau, and the other is a Channel 5 antenna pointed at Pembroke, for the sole purpose of pulling in CHRO/5. Not a single station there is perfectly clear, although CBOT/4 and CJOH/13 from Ottawa come in reasonably well, as does CHRO. Some of the UHFs from Ottawa come in very snowy, particularly CICO/24, CIVO/30, and CHOT/40. Some of the translators for CBOT appear at this motel, but none of them are watchable. Even though Global has a transmitter not too far away on Channel 2, you can't get that station because the antenna isn't pointed south toward that transmitter.

 

[e-dawg]

Isn't there an FCC law that requires cable system or DTH reciever to be requried to carry local channels? Does the hotel cable have to comply with the FCC law?

 

[JeeperOne]

Hi everyone:

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?

This problem not only plagues hotels, but hospitals as well.

All the locals, but only a select amount of everything else out there. And it all comes off the sat. systems too. That of course means if you wanna watch your local city council in action BUT you're lying in bed in the hospital, you'd better have your laptop and, in some cases, your WiFi card with you because the ones that DO offer WiFi may not offer it for free.

On top of that, you'd better hope the municipality streams it's government access channel over the web (Many do but many do not).

Otherwise, you're SOL.

Cheers

Pat

 

[Markxxx]

Isn't there an FCC law that requires cable system or DTH reciever to be requried to carry local channels? Does the hotel cable have to comply with the FCC law?

Yes the law says (with few exceptions) the locals have to be carried. But the hotel does not have pass that on to it's customers.

Like I said most hotels have limited space on their TV systems. 30 channels is a lot for a hotel. Most have between 10-15. And some of those are contracted by the national franchise (usually ESPN, Headline News and TWC) while others are requested. In addition the hotel usually has two or three channels for inhouse use.

For most people TV isn't a make or break thing as long as they get the four basic networks. If your staying at a resort, where the stays are five days or longer that would probably be an issue, but so someone can't watch a channel for one night. With VCRs and such, most people say big deal.

In the 80s, when I worked for Columbia Sussex, we found Days Inn (owned by a different company than today) would allow us through their franchise, much, MUCH cheaper rates through a big dish, so we used that at Days Inn owned by Columbia Sussex. Because Days Inn was so huge and nationwide, they could contract for a good rate, but all we got were good premium channels. The locals were pulled in by a master antenna.

At Red Roof Inn they used cable, because that was a better deal for them. Of course back then at either hotel we didn't even have remotes. I remember I worked weekends part time at a Motel 6 and we only got remotes at those motels in 1996.