Starwood Hotels & Resorts presented its first in-hotel Cisco TelePresence meeting suites yesterday.
The W Chicago City Center and Sheraton on the Park Sydney were chosen as the launch properties, showcasing the state-of-the-art Cisco TelePresence technology.
At a true-to-life meeting setting despite more than 9,000 miles apart and a 17-hour difference, participants – made up of guests and corporate clients – successfully met "face-to-face” experiencing ultra-high definition video, superior video and life-size imagery of all participants.
In June of last year, Starwood announced its partnership with Tata Communications to install Cisco TelePresence rooms in 10 properties around the world. The technology will next come online this year at the Sheraton New York Hotel & Towers, Sheraton Centre Toronto and The Westin Los Angeles Airport. Then it’s on to Dallas, San Francisco, Brussels, Paris, Hongkong and Frankfurt.
Reservations for these telepresence rooms is done on a per hour rental basis and can be made using the Tata Communications online portal paying by any major credit card.
TelePresencing is a growing trend that answers companies’ needs to cut travel costs and maintain efficiency as well as maintain valuable partner relationships.
US hotel chain Marriott unveiled last month the first of its Telepresence video-conference meeting rooms in New York and Bethesda, near Washington DC (click news), and Business Traveller understands, it will debut in Asia in its JW Marriott Hong Kong property around April, then be rolled out in 24 other properties worldwide.
For more details visit www.starwood.com or www.whotels.com or www.sheraton.com
Margie T Logarta
