Major hotel chains are responding, by figuring out the next must-have exercise equipment or personal data assistant tech tool. Smart hotel managers want to install next-generation electronics before their guests even ask. To keep up with their gadget-obsessed guests, friendly innkeepers have taken to business partnerships with major technology companies, like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo.

As reported in the International Herald Tribune and NewsFactor Network last November, small and large hotel chains are equipping guest rooms and hotel lobby areas with the latest and greatest electronic devices. Initiatives include:

· Sheraton Hotels teamed with Microsoft to electronically bump up the Sheraton brand, with Link-at-Sheraton lounges in lobbies. Guests can use public computers to print their flight boarding passes, check email and record a video postcard to send home … rather than scribbling on picture post cards or that bland hotel stationery.

· To set itself apart from all the other hotel brands in Miami Beach, developers at Gansevoort Hotel Group plans to develop an interactive media lounge near the main lobby – Sony computers, PlayStation3 game consoles, plus digital book readers and cameras that registered guests can sign out – as an alternative to the traditional Business Center tucked away in a side room. Gansevoort’s technology choices are an integral part of their hotel design.

· Fitness while traveling is a high priority for both business travelers and vacationing guests. And the standard swimming pool and fitness gym may not be enough anymore. Westin Hotel chain worked with Nintendo to install Wii games and exercise consoles, including yoga and exercise workouts that use Wii’s balance board player equipment.

· As Susan Stellan wrote in NewsFactor’s “Hotels, Tech Firms Try To Satisfy Guests’ Gadget Needs” – and as confirmed by Microsoft’s Director of Hospitality Industry Solutions (Why are you surprised Microsoft has one of those??) – the hotel tech project also boosts technology company marketing. People who rent rooms and suites at the Sheraton are the same profiled consumers Microsoft wants to talk to … but finds it difficult to approach with traditional tech advertising.