As many of us have read over the past week, some major hotel chains — Hyatt and Hyatt Place Hotels, Omni and some Starwood properties – have made the decision to remove Yellow Pages directories from their hotel rooms. (Although a call to our September conference hotel, Atlanta’s Hyatt Regency, revealed it has yet to receive notice from its headquarters regarding this decision.) According to The Charlotte Observer, “The chain has dumped in-room phone books ‘primarily due to the convenience the Internet provides.’ ”

While this may be positioned as a “green” decision or one that is based on the belief that people use the in-room Yellow Pages less frequently than they do online search, the real reason for the move is likely more about revenues than convenience. At many major hotels, in-room high-speed Internet access (HSIA) is a paid commodity. According to a white paper by Nomadix, a BusinessWeek survey “respondents ranked HSIA as the second most important attribute they consider in making a hotel selection decision.” And according to Gartner Group, “there are 36 million business travelers in the U.S., 75% of whom carry laptops.”

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