Mission: Morning News

Filed in archive Destination: Europe , Destination: US , Travel Industry on May 30, 2006

I don't know about you, but I like that peculiar arrangement of hotel interiors that allows you to successfully bounce the morning news from the telly to the mirror over the desk to the bathroom door mirror to the bathroom mirror. That way I can watch the morning (or afternoon) news whilst brushing my teeth and glossing my lips, even if it does require a slight bending of the laws of reflection and refraction.

Such acrobatics of physics may no longer be required. According to USA Today, hotels are installing new technology that allows television images to be beamed directly to the bathroom mirrors in guest rooms.

The Charles in Boston has added them to all 337 rooms and suites; the MGM Grand in Las Vegas has been a bit more parsimonious and added them only to their technology-happy Skylofts and West Wing rooms. For the record, the Skyloft rooms already have flat screen televisions in the shower, but now you don't need to miss a moment of CNN.

One cool technology trick I'm quite glad they're not using in the USA, however, is the new fingerprint room key system in place at the luscious Murano Urban Resort in Paris. Guest proffer their finger tips on arrival, and fondel a positively Mission Impossible touch pad at their room door for access. Très sophistiqué.