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May 16, 2007 12:03 AM

Broken: Holiday Inn eHost page

ParrotDoreen Sawani writes:

While staying at the Santa Monica Holiday Inn recently I had a chance to use its wireless internet connection, including the "proprietary electronic guest concierge system" aka eHost.

Not familiar with the area, I tried pulling up a map. However, when I clicked on "Map of the Hotel" the page showed a picture of a parrot instead of a map.

Clicking the "enlarge" button simply displayed a full size version of the same parrot graphic.

The eHost system is fairly new, so it's quite possible the parrot graphic was being used as a placeholder until the correct map is available.

I consider this broken because even a placeholder image should be relevant -- such as a graphic with the text "No map available." I like parrots as much as the next person -- but they're not very helpful when trying to find a restaurant.

Posted in Web/Tech

Comments:

Try the Dorsal Guiding Feather bistro. I hear it's got great coconut.

Posted by: =David at May 16, 2007 12:15 AM

It looks like a fairly big hotel, too--looks like it has two separate wings.

Posted by: furd_burfel at May 16, 2007 03:21 AM

That is one of the funniest things I've seen in a while. :)

Posted by: chrism312 at May 16, 2007 07:46 AM

Unless you wanted a cracker.

Posted by: srah at May 16, 2007 10:07 AM

Maybe it's a talking parrot and you just have to ask it nicely for directions...

Posted by: ambrocked at May 16, 2007 11:08 AM

He trained the parrot to give directions. No one's quite figured out how.

Posted by: tech_9 at May 16, 2007 12:07 PM

"It looks like a fairly big hotel, too--looks like it has two separate wings.

Posted by: furd_burfel"

now THAT'S funny!

Posted by: Memnon at May 16, 2007 01:02 PM

Ok, it is a fairly big hotel with big wings. You can ask it directions and it will answer.

And if you are not already using it, you should get Firefox at:

http://www.getfirefox.com/

It works much better, and will protect you from any **** that this hotel wants to put on your computer.

Posted by: Gabriel J. Smolnycki at May 17, 2007 07:23 AM

The problem is that the web concierge has been 'upgraded' with VISTA speech recognition. The user was asking for a hotel in 'Paris' and the computer thought he said 'parrot'.

Posted by: shake before using at May 18, 2007 10:30 AM

Hmm, this doesn't make me feel any better, seeing as how I will be staying at a Holiday Inn soon.

Posted by: James at May 18, 2007 02:41 PM

maybe it wants a cracker and then it will show you a map lol. defiantly broken in a sense that the placeholder image is completely out of whack with the whole site. and what possessed them to use a parrot of all things. even having no image would've made more sense

Posted by: PC_nut at May 22, 2007 12:30 AM

How do you know this is NOT a map of the hotel? I once stayed in an RV park where the lanes were laid out like Elvis's guitar.

Posted by: henrybowmanaz at May 23, 2007 04:36 AM

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