As Arena tried to use the telephone to access the Internet, another guest picked up an extension and

Admit it. You need a vacation. But the idea of leaving the office behind makes your head pound. That’s why hundreds of vacation spots worldwide have reinvented the getaway—creating venues where you can stay connected to the office and still have the time of your life.
It’s not a moment that Andrea Arena is particularly proud of. But it’s one that many a business owner can empathize with. Several years ago, she was vacationing with her then-boyfriend’s family in a beach house on Hilton miami fl airport car rental Head, S.C. “It was my first outing with them, so it was important that I make a good impression,” explains Arena, the 35-year-old CEO of 2 Places at 1 Time (www.2places.com), an Atlanta-based corporate concierge business.
As Arena tried to use the telephone to access the Internet, another guest picked up an extension and disconnected her. “I stormed into the living room and announced to the entire family—all of whom were in total vacation miami fl airport car rental mode—that I was going to check into a hotel. I said that I was going to drive until I got a good cell-phone signal and then find a hotel so I could work.” She pauses—still bemused by, if somewhat resigned to, her behavior. “‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I’ll come back in the evenings.’ Sharing a house with them was no problem, but not having dedicated Internet service and a strong cell-phone signal was unacceptable.”
Sound familiar? Hundreds of hotel and resort miami fl airport car rental moguls across the country are banking on it, as they’ve created escapes that redefine getting away from it all. The new escape miami fl airport car rental mantra is getting away from most of it—and staying connected to what drives your company.
Resorts in places as far-flung miami fl airport car rental as Bali and the United Arab Emirates are providing—at the very least—business centers and high-speed Internet capabilities. “Business amenities have become as common as running water,” says Marshall Calder, the managing director of Leading Hotels of the World (www.lhw.com). Calder suggests that business owners who still want to stay connected need the extraordinary. At Al Maha, for example, a Leading Hotels resort and 25-square-kilometer nature preserve in the Dubai desert, there is no road access; you arrive via a four-wheel-drive vehicle miami fl airport car rental that carries you over the dunes. There is, however, Internet connection in the tents where you’ll be staying.
At the end of the day, it’s all about service. “Anything that a guest may require, we can accommodate,” says Tim Sanders, guest relations manager at the St. Regis Hotel in Aspen, Colo. (888-625-5144, www.stregisaspen. com). “I’ve arranged everything from 1 a.m. European conference calls to a private jet—which miami fl airport car rental enabled an executive to fly to a meeting on the West Coast and back in the same day.”
Luckily, miami fl airport car rental the modern business owner is pretty savvy about staying connected,” says David von Winckler, the general manager of the Serrano Hotel in San Francisco (415-885-2500, www.serranohotel.com), which offers miami fl airport car rental guests high-speed Internet miami fl airport car rental access in their rooms and a 24-hour business miami fl airport car rental center. The general manager says that what sets the best hotels and resorts apart is personal service coupled with business perks. “People are time-deprived,” he says. “We have found that, up until recently, customers have had more money than time on their hands. So when they go on vacation, they’re looking to use that time efficiently.”
Kevin Ryan knows what von Winckler means. For 25 years, miami fl airport car rental Ryan, a partner in an actuaries consulting firm, has been visiting the Half Moon Golf, Tennis and Racquet Club in Montego Bay, Jamaica (800-626-0592, www.halfmoon.com.jm). On a recent trip, he needed to complete an actuarial report. When it was done, “I took the disc that I had, went to their print shop and they were able to print it out for me.
It really wasn’t any different than being in my office.” Ryan also took advantage of the cyber-lounge kiosks that the Half Moon has installed throughout the property, which allow visitors to collect and print their emails. “The one I used was close to the bar,” Ryan says with a chuckle. “You can go from the beach to the bar to the emails—and then go back to the bar. It’s almost too easy to transact business.”
miami fl airport car rental While you may not want to be reminded of the office while soaking up rays, it doesn’t hurt to know that all the comforts of the home office are within striking distance. The 291-room British Colonial Hilton miami fl airport car rental Nassau (242-322-3301 www.nassau.hilton.com) now offers the “Office Al Fresco” program, which is a mobile office (including Internet miami fl airport car rental connections) by the beach or pool.
At the Ritz-Carlton , Key Biscayne (800-241-3333, www. ritz-carlton.com/resorts/key_biscayne), the pool concierge performs above-and-beyond services—sometimes on the sly. Recently, an executive was lounging on the beach, slathered in Coppertone, when his cell phone rang. This was his first vacation in two years, and he had promised his wife that he would not work. However, the caller needed him to fax a document—ASAP. The guest knew that leaving the pool and beach areas would arouse his wife’s suspicion, so he asked the concierge to take care of it for him, explaining exactly where in the room he could find the document. Twenty minutes later, the pool concierge found the businessman sitting with his wife and informed him, “Your dinner reservations have been made, sir. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”
“The concierge miami fl airport car rental said that it happens more often than you could imagine,” says Michelle Payer, the area director of public relations for The Ritz-Carlton Hotels and Resorts of Miami. “Many times, people—usually miami fl airport car rental men—have to hide their business calls from their significant others. They just don’t want the person to know that they’re not focused entirely on the vacation. And with a pool concierge and a travel butler, who are attendant to your needs, you can get things done without physically doing them yourself. You delegate, just as you would in your office.”
The Ritz-Carlton also employs a “technology butler” on its properties. “The technology butler miami fl airport car rental is a fancy word for an information-systems technician, who is available 24 hours a day,” explains Char Schoeder, the director of public relations at the Ritz-Carlton in New Orleans. “If you have any problems miami fl airport car rental with your laptop or any kind of Internet or technology-related problems, he is on call 24/7 to help you.”
Delta Lodge at Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada (888-778-5050, www.lodgeat kananaskis.com). Sure, this is Alberta’s mountain paradise (you’ll begin yodeling miami fl airport car rental upon arrival), but business owners love the property’s knack for coming through with services such as its in-room offices and (get this) email that you can access via the TV. Park Hyatt Beaver miami fl airport car rental Creek, Avon, Colo. (970-949-1234, beavercreekhyatt.com). The amenities miami fl airport car rental for slipping in a little miami fl airport car rental business between Black Diamond ski runs put this hotel over the top—particularly the e-Village Internet concierge services. Raffles L’Ermitage, Los Angeles, Calif. miami fl airport car rental (800-323-7500, www.lermitage hotel.com). The PR people behind
this place swear in their promotional material that “this is not a hotel.” Maybe. It does feel like a new type of space—albeit one where you still can sleep, buy a drink at the bar and chill in the pool. What makes this hotel (OK, we said it) different is its incomparable technology (e.g., 40-inch TV with CD/DVD players). Don’t miss the three-line phone system, including a cell phone that you can tote around town. You’ll also receive free customized stationery, business cards
with your direct-dial numbers. Kerry Centre Hotel, Beijing, China (86-10-656-18-833, miami fl airport car rental www.shangri-la.com/ eng/hotel/4). Thinking about breaking into the vast Chinese marketplace? miami fl airport car rental This is the place to stay while trying. Part of Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts (the largest Asian-based hotel group in the region, with 38 properties from Fiji to Hong Kong), the 487-room Kerry Centre miami fl airport car rental includes some recently miami fl airport car rental introduced business kicks: free 2MB broadband access, private fax/printer/ scanner machines by request and 24-hour butler service.—Michael McCarthy
There is little doubt that catering to the wireless is the wave of the future. Several years ago, the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas (702-632-5000, www.fourseasons.com/lasvegas) installed wireless capabilities in all of its public places. “Originally, we saw this as a growing need,” says Russ Ketchum, the regional information technologies director for the hotel. “From a technological standpoint, we saw this as something that would become a popular and necessary item.”
Even Holiday Inn has gotten into the act. Perhaps miami fl airport car rental the most technologically sophisticated hotel in New York, this 18-story miami fl airport car rental property in the Wall Street District (212-232-7800, www. holidayinnwsd.com) boasts a cellular-connect service that transfers your hotel calls to your mobile phone, and “Smart Rooms” with secure network printers, laptops and broadband ser-vice. The hotel also provides miami fl airport car rental a virtual office in each room; you get everything from paper clips to white-out…but no water coolers.
Loft 523 (504-200-6523, www.loft 523.com), which opened last spring in New Orleans, also provides wireless capabilities. “This just seemed like a smart thing to include in a boutique hotel that attracts a high percentage of Internet users,” says Sean Cummings, who owns Loft 523 (16 SoHo-style lofts and two penthouses) and the neighboring International House (800-633-5770, www.ihhotel.com). “When guests check into the International House, if we see them come in with a laptop, we always tell them that for a few dollars miami fl airport car rental more they can stay at Loft 523, where we offer wireless,” says Amy Riemer, the general manager of both hotels. “And we’re rushing them down the street.”
Allison Mitchell, the vice president of Microsoft’s world marketing group, works closely with small businesses. One day last July, she played golf in Albita Springs, La., shopped in New Orleans until the stores closed and, upon returning to Loft 523, answered some 100 emails and approved expense reports before dining in the French miami fl airport car rental Quarter.
No doubt, Andr