Latest VOD (video on demand) Technologies allow each individual guest to choose their entertainment , including latest release films (before they come out on DVD) Hollywood title movies and adult entertainment. Guests can also play video games and access the internet from their room.

Studies show that the majority of hotels’ VOD income is from adult entertainment ordered by business travelers. There is also an increasing demand for latest release films.

Until a year or two ago, the services that most hotels marketed as video on demand were anything but.

In many cases, individual properties would be supplied with several copies of 10 to 15 movie titles on a videocassette tape. When a guest ordered a movie, a request was sent to the VCR player bank, and the movie would be sent to the television set in the guestroom. To manage system load, starting times would be staggered.

Now, hotel room VOD has entered the digital era. Because the on-demand content is stored as digital bits and bytes, availability is not constrained by the number of copies a hotel has. On-demand programming can be queued up exactly when the guest wants to see it.

The big deal in VOD in hotels is the move from analog to digital technologies. Previously, hotels were limited by physical space and by the investment on the part of the provider, now, with the growth of digital technology and digital file servers, you can not only offer content immediately, but you can provide a lot of selection and a lot of different services, everything is more customized.

Hotels need not invest in pricey new televisions to make the technology work. Properties typically need a file server to receive and distribute on-demand digital files, a smart card in the guestroom television to communicate with the file server, and a proprietary remote-control device that guests use to interface with the television and order VOD programs.

What matters to guests is not only the amount of movies and other on-demand content that is available and the virtually instant starting times, but the ability to control the viewing experience itself. Via digital personal video recorders, many people have become acclimated to starting, stopping, backspacing and fast-forwarding through a program while it is airing. It's only natural that guests would want that same functionality in their hotel rooms.

As the technology has changed, people get used to wanting more convenience in their in-room entertainment. The guest has more control over the movie-watching experience. They can stop and pause the movie if they need to. Before, they'd have to sit continuously through it.

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