Being in a strange city is difficult enough without having to figure out how to set the alarm or find the local jazz station.
The Hilton hotel chain, which includes Doubletree and Embassy Suites, has a high-tech solution: a clock with a patented, easy-to-set alarm and station presets. It also has built-in stereo speakers and a jack to connect an MP3 or CD player.
These clocks automatically adjust for Daylight Savings Time and leap year.
Hilton will install 250,000 new clocks in 975 hotels across six of its brands from March through July. Hampton Inn clocks will not have the jacks for portable music players.
The clocks, developed by a unit of Timex, include four preset buttons offering local pop, country and rock stations as well as news. Other buttons allow users to set the time in any of seven time zones.
To ensure that hotel occupants aren't startled by an alarm set by a previous guest, the alarm must be reset each night. That's easy: The three required steps are printed on the front of each clock.
