At your service: an update of new hotel accommodations and amenities.

• Author: Tricker, Jennifer
• Position: HOTELS & RESORTS

A SURVEY OF CONVENTION and visitors bureaus across Indiana yielded the following additions to the state hotel offerings:

Northwest Indiana.

T.J. Maloney's Irish Pub underwent a $2 million-plus renovation at the Radisson Hotel at Star Plaza, Merrillville. "It is one of only a handful of Irish pubs that is certified authentic by the Guinness Co.," says David Cox, director of sales. "We even had a 'hiring hall' in Dublin and hired our pub manager, several bartenders and servers who are working in the pub now."

All hotel beds are being upgraded to the Sleep Number Beds by Select Comfort. This project has already started and will be complete in the first quarter of 2006.

Recently, the entire hotel complex was enabled as a high-speed wireless environment.

Fort Wayne. Only a couple of years ago, the Hilton Fort Wayne at the Grand Wayne Center received a multimillion-dollar, award-winning, top-to-bottom renovation. The hotel is connected to the Grand Wayne Center, which finished its own massive expansion project in the spring. Now, according to Hilton general manager Don Rieger, the facility is stepping up its business service center and guest accommodations.

Set to open the first of the year, a new business center offers complimentary use of three business stations, outfitted with full print capabilities, flat-screen plasma television, copy and fax machines, plus a laptop station. Guests will be able to print documents to the business center from the convenience of their private rooms.

Already a Hilton standard are the specially designed, easy-to-set alarm clocks with DVD and iPod ports. An upgraded bedding package includes new pillows, pillowcases, triple sheeting and an extra cushion on top of pillowtop mattresses. Crabtree & Evelyn toiletry products are also new standards at the Hilton.

By mid-next year, Rieger says concierge-level services will be available at the Hilton. Some of the new perks will feature plasma televisions in guest rooms, breakfast and a cocktail hour with hors d'oeuvres, perfect for networking.

The Fort Wayne Marriott has added a $1.2 million 9,800-square-foot ballroom/conference center, the Marquis Ballroom. Elegant chandeliers, ergonomic seating for up to 1,000, high-speed Internet access and on-site audio/visual are some of its key features.

Indianapolis. The much-anticipated Conrad Indianapolis will open its doors in the heart of downtown in mid-March of 2006, just in time for the NCAA Final Four. The "luxury brand of...