Hotel Offers Guests Speedy Internet Access

Business travelers who need to get wired now have another option besides the room service coffee at the Sheraton Hotel Newport Beach.

As part of a recent renovation, the Sheraton wired itself for fast access to the Internet. Hotel officials contend their fiber-optic connections and high-octane server can speed business travelers onto the infobahn 80 times faster than a regular modem. Better yet, there are no phone charges to worry about since it’s a direct “T-1” connection to cyberspace.

“Our guests can bypass all the delays and phone charges,” said Sandy Aarons, director of sales and marketing at the Sheraton. “They can plug right in.”

For a fee, of course.

The Sheraton has hot-wired only its two “Club Level” floors, where room rates run about $129 a night compared with the standard $109 corporate rate. Guests with standard laptop computers will have to rent an adapter for $15 to hook into the hotel’s special “Ethernet” server. The connection charge is an additional $10 a day for unlimited use.

Aarons says the Newport Beach Sheraton and the newly renovated Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles are the only hotels in Southern California currently offering guests fiber-optic connectivity--for now, anyway.

“Seems like everybody has a laptop these days,” she said. “Business travelers are going to love it.”

Marla Dickerson covers tourism for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-5670 and at