Whether hotel companies want to build a foundation for customer self-service or scale to support more properties, technology innovation is key. Approaches range from complex middle- ware to a vast service-oriented architecture, but the goal is the same: to easily plug new applications, services, and even properties into an IT environment.

Marriott International Inc.'s "seamless mobility" middleware, as senior VP of IT strategy Barry Shuler calls it, solves a specific problem: When guests use cell phones, PDAs, and other wireless devices to check-in remotely, order room service before arriving, or tap into special offers, they sometimes lose the connection in the middle of transactions as they move from one Wi-Fi hot-spot to another. To remedy this, Marriott partnered with Intel and Microsoft to develop the middleware, which Shuler says holds data a guest enters until the connection is re-established.

The middleware also will come into play as Marriott deploys networked TVs in 50,000 rooms over the next four years. Those TVs will let guests connect whatever devices they bring with them into the hotel's network.

INSIDE HOSPITALITY & TRAVEL Average portion of 2005 revenue spent on IT 2.0% Companies spending more on IT this year than last 69% Buying directly from foreign suppliers 50% Centralizing control of IT operations in past 12 months 50% Bringing outsourced functions in-house in past 12 months 38%

Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. is putting finishing touches on a service-oriented architecture that it calls Valhalla and will do final testing in October, with plans to start moving 750 hotels from its mainframe environment to the SOA in February. "Hopefully, this time next year, our mainframe will be very, very idle," chief technology officer Tom Conophy says. The company has about 150 Web services in development that will handle tasks such as room-availability searches, booking processes, and loyalty registration.

The SOA also will let Starwood deliver services to a new generation of networked televisions, expected to be in rooms next year. Conophy isn't convinced that Web-services security is up to snuff, and he won't expose any services to the public until it is. That could be another two years, he says. "The last thing we want is somebody in Zimbabwe to sell out one of our Sheratons just because he can."

Glenn Bonner, CIO of casino resort operator MGM Mirage, faces huge tasks before he can focus on beefing up customer self-service. MGM is in the midst of a multibillion-dollar acquisition of Mandalay Resort Group that will nearly double MGM's size, and Bonner needs to make sure the network can accommodate the additional properties.

The company has invested $2 million in dense wavelength division multiplexing, optical networking technology that increases network bandwidth. And it has completed a data-warehouse cleansing operation that enables it to absorb the 250,000 transactions that are recorded daily in its reservations, loyalty-club, point-of-sale, and show-ticketing systems.

MGM also will roll out a property-management system after spending the past year architecting the Oracle RAC server environment. The company will update its Treasure Island and five other properties' systems at a cost of $10 million. Then work will begin on the Mandalay properties. When complete, the system will provide a central reservations system and one interface for managing bookings coming from the four global distribution systems that travel agents and corporate travel managers use.

The work won't stop, though. "My boss tells me that we're not done with acquisitions, so the theme we have is, be prepared," Bonner says. Judging from the pace of IT innovation in the hospitality industry, he's not alone.

	I.T. BUDGET BREAKDOWN Hardware purchases IT services or outsourcing Research and development 20% 12% 5% Salaries and benefits Applications Everything else 34% 16% 13% Data: InformationWeek Research

Illustration By Paul Watson

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	HOSPITALITY & TRAVEL   Aramark Corp.   Carlson Companies Inc.   Cendant Corp.   Club Corp Inc.   Darden Restaurants Inc.   Flying J Inc.   Hilton Hotels Corp.   Intercontinental Hotels Group PLC * Marriott International Inc.   MGM Mirage   NPC International Inc. * Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. * Sabre Holdings   Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc.   TravelCenters of America   Wyndham International Inc. * denotes a top 100 company