At Courtyard -Boulder,CO. Could only print one page of a 3 page email. Also, I could not copy from an email and paste into Word. Manager says the security on the business center computers have been really tightened up due to a problem at another hotel chain.
I forwarded the email to the manager who then printed it for me. Anybody else having problems with business center printing?
John
I have had problems with the printer being out of toner and/or paper on many many stays. I suspect the business centers operate based upon complaints rather than someone routinely checking the toner, paper, or that the computer is getting MS updates, etc. I only see housekeeping going into the center to clean or check trash, never seen anyone actually checking condition of computers/peripherals.
I'm glad someone else noticed. I do printing, scanning, and mailing when traveling and at many hotels I encountered similar problems printing. You'll be lucky to even find a scanner. Check out the Canon PIXMA iP110. It's not the smallest printer ever made, but it's small enough. You can take it through TSA, but they like you to put it in a separate bin. I haven't had any issues with the ink leaking due the cabin pressure. I can't recommend a good travel scanner because I've had repeated problems with the Brother ADS1000W. It has feed issues. If someone knows of a great travel scanner please let me know.
I've had issues over the years. Actually today was with trying to print an excel doc. Microsoft word doc and powerpoint docs printed okay but excel was not cooperating. Had to copy and paste into new word doc and took 5 mins of editing to get it right.
Security for sure is one issue. Another is the fact that some don't actually have Microsoft office but use some generic form of it.
I always use a flash drive as hate using my login info. Always have had success taking the flash drive to front desk and having them print from my flash if I ever have issues.
My experience is the new setup that is commonly seen in the lobbies of the US Fairfield/FI/TP, is pretty reliable but the older looser setups tend to get broken over time. The problem with that newer setup is that the latest version of the new system is that is doesn't appear to include office.
I am somewhat paranoid about using those shared computers, so I always clear them BEFORE and AFTER I use them. One of the things that makes me feel a little better about the latest setup is that it completely flushed to user data as soon as you log off.
They work OK for boarding pass printing, but if you need to print something else the best bet is print it to a PDF on your own computer and email it to yourself on account used just for that purpose.
I personally won't put a USB stick in a Random computer and ever trust that stick again and I have lost count of how many lounge/lobby computers I have walked up and determined they were already compromised.
The printer actually have paper/toner is a different matter.
Yes, I encountered similar problems recently at the Leipzig Marriott & Berlin Courtyard - I could not print anything! I had to email my documents to the front desk and they printed them for me.
In both cases, the business center/lobby computers mounted my flash drive but when I went to open documents (Word, Excel, Adobe PDF) they all acted as if my flash drive was empty. I checked & double-checked my flash drive on my laptop and everything was there. Went back to the Marriott computers, inserted my flash drive, opened Windows Explorer, navigated to my flash drive, and it showed empty. (I even tried reformatting my flash drive twice & re-copying my documents - once as FAT32, once as exFAT and it didn't work in either case. Both Marriott pcs had Windows 10 installed, so both formats should have worked.)
The folks at Leipzig said something about tighter security on their computers; they seemed a little frustrated by it themselves. When I encountered the same problem in Berlin, I just gave up and asked the front desk to print my documents.
ps. I also could not print directly from Word or Firefox on these computers. It was as if printing capability was turned off. What's the purpose of having a pc hooked up to a printer in the lobby or business center (ostensibly to print your boarding passes & other documents) if you can't print anything?