Edward Carey | Cox | Hilton | airport hotel

Cox believes integrating the hotel design into a terminal that is being built from the ground up will allow the airport hotel to provide unique amenities, such as airport check-in. But perhaps the most important service element - which will potentially set a new standard - will be the opportunity to be at the hotel within five minutes of arriving at any DFW terminal. According to Cox, plans are to invest $740 million in a new high-speed people-mover rail system, which, by the end of 2005, will replace the multitrain system that currently connects the terminals.

"Time is of the essence for travelers," echoes Edward Carey, marketing director of the Hilton at Boston's Logan Airport, which is a five-minute sky-bridge walk or minibus ride from terminals A and E. The $100 million hotel - the first phase of new construction at Logan that also includes better access to the airport from major highways - offers mobile check-in from the shuttle bus. "You can swipe your credit card to register before you get to the hotel," says Carey.

One of the big surprises for guests at the Hilton, Carey notes, is that the hotel is so quiet. "There's no interference from airport noise whatsoever, with specially insulated windows and the location, which is out of the flight path." Quiet is also a priority on the West Coast. Francis Parkinson, general manager of the Fairmont Vancouver Airport, attributes the phenomenon to a "curtain wall," a triple-glazed, acoustically treated envelope that encompasses the whole building.