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Not that long ago, hotel technology was simple: An in-room TV was the most sophisticated equipment in sight. The business centre had the only PCs around.

But these days a PDA is a basic accessory, and hotels find themselves in a never-ending struggle to keep up - from iPod docks to touch-pad remote controls and free Wi-Fi.

Welcome to the world of today's high-tech hotels: They're full of devices designed to make your stay easier, from checking your e-mail in the lobby to meeting fellow guests online. And the technology is everywhere.

"It's amenity creep," says Gabor Forgacs, a professor at Ryerson University's school of hospitality and tourism management. "Guests are used to having a lot of gadgets surrounding them at home, so what they [find] on the road must accommodate that need."

Hotels are figuring out that, rather than billing them as attractions, their technology offerings should let guests do the things they do every day. A wall-sized television is fine - but make sure the Wi-Fi works!

SOCIAL NETWORKING

At New York's Pod Hotel, a 35-year-old DJ and concierge named Bryan Raughton runs an experiment that a lot of people are keeping an eye on.

Never mind booking rooms in advance: The Pod Hotel wants its guests to get the jump on making friends with complete strangers.

The hotel has set up an online forum that guests can access as soon as they have booked a room. Weeks in advance, they can post messages in forums with names like "I'd like to go for a drink" or "I'd like to go for dinner," announcing the dates of their stay and seeing if any other guests would like to join them.

"You'll find a couple of girls from London, a couple of guys from Australia, you'll find a family who wants to go out together," says Raughton, whose job it is to moderate the forums, as well of taking care of guests when they show up.

"They all generally seem to meet in our lobby area, where we have Wi-Fi. Sometimes they're chatting right across from each other and don't even realize it."

The Pod Hotel caters primarily to a younger crowd, combining economy-minded features like smaller rooms and shared bathrooms with full-service perks like free Wi-Fi Internet and concierge service. (That means Raughton.)

But some people see applications for this idea beyond simply setting up social engagements. Chris Brogan, a social media consultant and widely read blogger, points out that business people could use a social networking directory to meet people with matching professional interests staying at the same hotel. "Wouldn't it be nice, instead of eating alone, to set up a meeting?"

CATERING TO

THE MOBILE CROWD

In the not-so-distant past, it would have been the rare guest who walked through the door with one or more computers strapped to his body. These days, when someone travels with a gadget (or five), he wants it to work wherever he goes.

In response, some hotels are shifting their focusing from providing gadgets to just working with what guests bring along with them.

"Hotels have, by and large, come to their senses," says Joe Brancatelli, a travel writer and founder of Joe Sent Me, a website for business travellers. "They understand that it's not their job to provide the technology, but to facilitate the technology."

The most important facilitation for business travellers, of course, is Internet access. Free Wi-Fi is common in lobby areas, though in-room Wi-Fi still isn't complimentary at many higher-end chains.

(Yet many motels in the U.S. offer in-room Wi-Fi for free. Vito Curalli of Hilton Canada explains that the costs of pushing Wi-Fi throughout a large hotel drives up costs; Brancatelli suggests it's simply a matter of price sensitivity, with patrons of high-end hotels being more willing to shell out.)

Alarm clocks with built-in iPod docks are becoming commonplace.

But also consider the flat-screen LCD televisions that are increasingly common in hotel rooms. They're great for plugging computers into in order to watch movies or practise PowerPoint presentations - Hilton is even building theirs on swivel mounts.

However, nobody wants to spend time pawing about behind them, trying to jam cables in. So brands like Starwood's new aloft and the Hyatt Place are promoting the concept of the "Plug Panel," an all-in-one panel of jacks located within easy reach that allow almost anything to be plugged into the television, no fumbling required: MP3 devices, DVD players, camcorders or laptops. The panels also include AC outlets for power, and input selection buttons for the TV. And should you find yourself without a necessary cable, Hyatt will be happy to sell you one.

GETTING YOU OUT

OF YOUR ROOM

The term "business centre" might conjure up images of out-of-the-way rooms with a few antiquated computers and extortionate fees. But some chains are revamping the idea, and recasting it as a place that travellers might even want to visit voluntarily.

At Hilton's upmarket Canadian brands, their business centres are angling to provide a complimentary, 24-hours office-away-from-the-office atmosphere for the business- inclined.

"They may go to the business centre as just a little escape," says Vito Curalli, the managing director of sales for Hilton's Canadian arm.

Curalli points out that some business people are travelling light, retrieving information from websites or flash drives instead of laptops.

Hilton's business centres are also offering Kinko's-style print-on-demand services. Guests can print documents from any computer on the hotel network - including their own laptops - then stop by the business centre to retrieve the hard copy by punching in an access code. That's what Hilton calls the "self-serve" model of business centre.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Sheraton Centre in Toronto actually has a graphic designer on staff who can put together conference programs and documents on short notice.

The Sheraton is also promoting an even more public work environment: an in-lobby cybercafé, branded "The Link@Sheraton." The lobby computers will offer free Internet access, as well as the ability to print off boarding passes for airliners.

"It's a way to get guests out of their rooms and down into the lobby, where they can socialize," says Dan Young, who manages public relations for Starwood in Canada.

In the lobby of the flagship Sheraton Centre, across from Toronto's City Hall, Link@Sheraton is up and running. Middle-aged business people are checking their Facebook pages on desktop terminals. Meanwhile, executives mingle with colleagues and use their laptops to access

free lobby Wi-Fi from plush couches.

The atmosphere is jovial, though some seem irked that they can't get the same free service in their rooms. "You go to Cochrane, in Northern Ontario, and you get free Wi-Fi," says Brendan Coyle, in

town for a risk-assessment conference.

CREATURE COMFORTS

But that doesn't mean in-room gadgets are disappearing. Take the Fontainebleau, the storied Miami Beach hotel that's soon to reopen under new management: Every one of its 1,504 rooms will come equipped with a brand-new Apple iMac which, in turn, will display digitized newspapers, instead of having the print editions dumped on the doorstep each morning. The hotel will also use the computers to offer guests online guides and trip planning devices.

Meanwhile, the $9-billion (U.S) CityCenter hotel development on the Las Vegas strip is billing itself, with typical Vegas modesty, as the most technologically advanced in the United States. Set to open next year, it promises centrally controlled rooms that will wake you up not by ringing an alarm, but by adjusting the temperature, opening the curtains and playing your favourite music.

The set-up also uses touch-screen bedside remotes, which can already be found in innovative spots such as the newly renovated Jumeirah Essex House in New York. (For those who like to watch, the Essex House has rigged its entertainment system to live rooftop cameras of Central Park and Times Square, so you can enjoy New York street life without needing to interact with the actual street.)

But, according to Prof. Forgacs, there's one amenity that might not creep into the future. With travellers increasingly arriving with their own cellphone, e-mail, SMS, VoIP and video-conferencing equipment, the "hotel room of the future" exhibit at the latest HiTec hotel technology fair conspicuously left one thing out:

a telephone.

Where to plug in

The Pod Hotel

230 East 51st St., New York; 212-355-0300; http://www.thepodhotel.com. Rates from $179 (U.S.) for bunk beds to $309 for a private room with queen bed.

Fontainebleau Resort

Miami Beach

4441 Collins Ave., Miami Beach; 305-538-2000; http://www.fontainebleau.com. "Paperless" rooms now available from $337 (U.S.)

Sheraton Hotels

Link@Sheraton locations

now active include Sheraton Centre Toronto (416-361-1000)

For more information, visit

http://www.starwoodhotels.com

sheraton.

Hyatt Place hotels

For locations and information

on the PlugPanel, visit http://www.hyatt.com/hyatt/place/plugpanel.