Remember when hotels used to slip in a copy of USA Today or the Wall Street Journal under the door every morning?
Now, some are going digital and offering e-readers to their guests. Ten Fairmont hotels in the U.S. and Canada will give guests a Kobo e-reader when they check-in, for use during their stay.
The Kobo will be pre-loaded with a selection of fiction and non-fiction books from Random House. Guests who check-out a Kobo will also be able to access free books from the Kobo bookstore.
"Travelers do not want to carry heavy books in their luggage and vacations provide the perfect time to relax and catch up on reading," says Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo in a statement. "This partnership allows Kobo to expand our reach and offer our service to an important segment of our customer base."
The $150 Kobo e-reader has a 6-inch black-and-white E Ink display and launched in March. It is currently available at Borders book stores in the U.S. When Kobo made its debut, it gathered attention because it was much cheaper than the Kindle. But since then, Amazon has cut price on the Kindle with a Wi-Fi only version of the Kindle for $140.
Giving hotel guests a Kobo to play with is an experiment worth watching. Newspapers such as USA Today tapped into hotels successfully to increase their reach and circulation. The same could happen for digital books and e-readers. Those consumers who haven't had a chance to try e-readers could play with one at a hotel and see if they are comfortable with digital books. And if they do like the experience, they are likely to want the same device they tried, which should be good news for Kobo.
The downside is that the Kobo e-reader at the hotel may not have the books you want.
And as with the bathrobe and the alarm clock in the room, your credit card will be billed if you walk away with the device.
See Also:
- Foxit eSlick E-Reader Nears its End
- 5 Things That Will Make E-Readers Better in 2010
- E-Readers Will Survive the Onslaught of Tablets
- Plastic Logic Que E-Reader Turns Into Vaporware
- Gallery: E-Readers Push Boundaries of Books
Photo: Kobo (jivedanson/Flickr)
