Hilton Takes Reservations WirelessHilton Takes Reservations Wireless

Lots of business executives are lugging around wireless devices to access company information from the Internet, so it only makes sense that the hotels where those executives often stay want to provide mobile access, too.

Hilton Hotels Corp. is rolling out a system that lets travelers wirelessly access Hilton's network to search for hotel information, book reservations, and tap into guest loyalty programs from their handheld devices.

After a three-month test of OpenGrid Inc.'s FastBook system, Hilton now offers nationwide wireless access to its network to users of PDAs running the Palm OS. In the future, Hilton plans to expand the wireless system so it can work with other devices, including Pocket PCs, Windows CE devices, and Research In Motion's BlackBerry.

Hilton's wireless initiative is part of its overall strategy to offer customers a number of different but cohesive ways to contact the hotel. "The consumers want it," says Virginia Suliman, director of E-business interface technology for Hilton. In fact, Suliman says, customer-service reps have been fielding calls for some time. "Our help desk received calls asking when we're going to be available on a wireless device and what kind of offers we would have."

To access Hilton's network wirelessly, a customer must download an application to a hand-held device from http://hilton.wirelessrez.com/ pqa via a standard desktop Internet connection. Once the application is downloaded, the PDA can find information about any of the 350 U.S. Hilton, Hilton Garden Inn, and Conrad hotels.

Some analysts are skeptical that Hilton's wireless service will gain any immediate favor with consumers. "Location and rate will still rule," says Henry Harteveldt, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. "Hilton is certainly going to gain valuable long-term knowledge on wireless device usage, but won't be seeing short-term booking or wireless transaction activity."

The download of the Hilton Wireless Reservations System is available now for Palm OS devices at no cost.