Choose the best alternative to replace the expressions in italics
Module 1 Travel
Text 1
Hotel hotspots
Before you read
Do you take a laptop PC wherever you go? Why/why not?
Reading
Read this article from the Financial Times and answer the questions
Wireless Internet: Demands of a more mobile workforce
By Sarah Murray
As the revolution in wireless technology gains momentum, hotels are the biggest
growth area for wi-fi (wireless networking) hotspots. These days, the business traveler
can get online anywhere from meeting and conference spaces to restaurants and bars.
A recent report from Visiongain, the UK-based media company, predicted that wi-fi
deployment in hotels was set to grow by more than ten times over the coming years. 5
The company believes that, in three years, about 90 percent of all corporate users’
laptops will include wi-fi capability. It reckons that the hotel industry will experience
the most widespread adoption of the commercial wi-fi hotspots by laptop and PDA
owners.
With such a fast take-up of the new technology it is hardly surprising that 10
hotels are keen to cash in. Opportunities to do so can be derived both from revenue-
sharing agreements with telecoms suppliers, as well as from driving more traffic into,
say, an unproductive coffee area, by introduction of wi-fi hotspots. However, perhaps
as important a motivation for hotel chains is the need to remain competitive, as their
corporate customers – ever more accustomed to working while on the move – are 15
demanding constant and easy access to high-speed Internet connections. Chains
have been quick to respond.
Marriott has installed wireless connections in more than 900 of its properties -
primarily in meeting and public spaces – at leading business travel destinations such as
New York, Washington< San Francisco, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore 20
and Hong Kong.
«We see the priority for wireless lying in places where mobility is a premium for travelers –
in the lobby or in a meeting environment – where they want to move to a break out room
and don’t want to have to reconnect,» says Lou Paladeau, Marriott’s vice-president of
technology business development. 25
And high-speed connections certainly can boost a property’s business. Since
Installing Cisco’s high-speed Internet access for its guests, for example, the 500-room
Palace Hotel in Japan has increased revenue by $27,000 per month. «If a guest tries our
Internet service for a day, he or she never stops using it until the departure day,» says
Kyohei Hirose, director of rooms at the Palace Hotel. «Once our foreign guests experience 30
this service, it becomes the reason for them to come back to the Palace Hotel again.»
Below are one-sentence summaries of each of the paragraphs in the article.
Put the summaries in the correct order. (Two of the summaries are not used).
a) Hotels want to make money from this development.
b) Installation of wireless facilities at Marriott.
c) Security problems with wireless Internet access.
d) Technical limitations to wireless Internet access.
e) Wireless access has increased profitability at a Japanese hotel.
f) Wireless Internet access in hotels is growing very fast.
2. Find expressions in the article that mean:
a) speeds up (5, 8 letters)
b) an activity that is increasing in size (6, 4 letters)
c) a place where you can get wireless Internet access ( 7 letters)
d) get access to the Internet (3, 6 letters)
e) said that something will happen (9 letters)
f) installation and use (of equipment) (10 letters)
g) ability to use (10 letters)
h) when someone starts to use a system or method (8 letters)
3. Look at lines …… . True or false? Marriott has installed wireless access….
a) in 9,000 of its hotels.
b) mainly in hotel bedrooms.
c) mainly in areas where people want to move around with their laptops.
d) in restaurants and bars as a priority.
Choose the best alternative to replace the expressions in italics.
a) High speed connections certainly can boost a property’s business. (line…..)
i) rise ii) go up iii) increase
b) The Palace Hotel in Japan has increased revenue by %$27,000 per month (line…)
i) sales ii) profits iii) losses
c) «If a guest tries our Internet service for a day, he or she never stops using it
until the departure day.» (line …..)
i) the day they come back ii) the day they leave iii) the day they arrive
d) «Once our foreign guests experience this service it becomes the reason for
them to come back to the Palace Hotel again.» (line….)
i) try these service for themselves
ii) talk about this service to their friends
iii) learn more about this service
5. What is the key message of the article? Choose the best alternative.
a) All hotels soon be offering wireless Internet access
b) When a hotel installs wireless Internet access, it must be available in all parts
of the hotel
c) More and more hotels are offering wireless Internet access, and this can increase
the money they make.
Over to you 1
Would you choose a hotel because it offers wireless Internet access or not?
Why/why not.
Over to you 2