FOR YEARS, LEGIONS of Swiss-trained hoteliers could afford to dismiss airlines as glorified buses in the sky, serving barely edible food with smiles as plastic as the cutlery. However, in the past five years, the leading carriers can rightfully point to huge leaps in the quality of business passenger pampering, with cocooned flatbeds and high-end entertainment systems. So we thought it might be fun to ask some airline executives to tell us how they would help hotels deliver better service to travellers. And, in the interests of fair play, Hong Kong hoteliers were invited to look beyond their marble-clad foyers and suggest some airborne improvements. Finding a senior executive willing to talk, however, was about as easy as securing one of those tantalising fares advertised by low-cost carriers. After painstaking research and off-the-record briefings with travel executives, here is a Top 10 list of things that airlines and hotels could learn from each other to make life easier for the business traveller. Five tips for hotels: 1. Sitting pretty Airlines have spent more than the United States defence budget on seat design. When it is not flipping into a bed, today's business-class seat is built to fit your every contour, providing the ultimate in 'lumbar support'. Here is an opportunity for hotels: why not put one of those hi-tech, body-soothing, massage chairs in every room. Heavenly. 2. Hang the cost Airlines aren't worried about passengers pinching their $30 magazines. So why do some five-star hotels think a $2,000-a-night guest would contemplate stealing a lousy coat-hanger? Why else do hotels persist in having coat-hangers that are locked to the hanging rail? Besides, it's the toiletries that go missing. 3. Hide and seek Everything is labelled on an aircraft so you never have a problem finding what you need: from the light button to the seat recline. But some hotels seem to think it is fun to play hide and seek. The hairdryer is a favourite, conveniently placed in the most unlikely drawer in the room. Back in the bathroom, please! 4. Come clean on laundry charges While airlines mark up their duty free prices, nothing compares to the price-gouging most hotels apply to laundry charges. In Bangkok you can buy a new shirt for the price of laundering it. Why hotels persist with this practice, forcing many long-stay customers to carry their dirty clothes to an off-site laundry, is a mystery. 5. Check it out Airlines are making big improvements with online seat selection, e-ticketing and automated check-in. Hotels, by and large, still want guests to complete a hand-written registration card and hand over their credit card at check-in. Even granted legal obligations, it is high time hotels got more tech-savvy and customer friendly with this process. Five ideas for airlines: 1. Bring on the beans Just about every hotel has a coffee shop because lots of people like coffee. There's at least two Pacific Coffee outlets and three Starbucks at Chek Lap Kok because everyone knows you cannot get a decent coffee on-board. Surely a latte at 11,000 metres is not out of the question? 2. Make mine chicken rice Hotels invented room service because guests wanted a choice of food around the clock. Airlines should offer pre-flight food orders, preferably online, and then serve it on demand. 3. Room to swing a towel Great hotels are famous for their great bathrooms. Airlines make you understand why bathrooms are sometimes called water closets: they are cramped and comfortless. Even recognising space limitations, airlines could work a little harder. 4. You will listen to this Hotels do not broadcast messages through rooms, they leave discreet notes or a message light flashing on your plasma screen. But airlines persist in blasting announcements throughout the flight. Safety procedures are necessary. But who wants their movie interrupted to hear the flight routing in three languages. 5. Lend a hand Hotels know that guests should not have to haul their bags to their room. Yet airlines leave you to fend for your luggage (when it does not go missing) from taxi to check-in, from check-in to the plane and even then you need to jockey for space in overhead bins. Maybe it is time to lend a hand.
