SEATTLE — At Hotel 1000, which markets its high-technology trappings to people visiting this tech-driven city, guests can get high-definition movies delivered over the Internet to a giant flat screen. That is, they can if they point the remote at exactly the right spot: an unlabeled clump of wires peeking out from under the monitor.

At the W Los Angeles-Westwood, guests can use something resembling a plastic parking meter to order margaritas from a poolside chaise. Most stick with waiters.

At the new Grand Del Mar resort in San Diego, a breakfast tray left outside the room will beam a silent message to the management until it gets picked up. At least, it will after the hotel gets some new gizmos to make it work.

Many such hotels are trying to catch up with a population that is more comfortable with technology than ever. The $133 billion lodging industry's cutting edge sees a business opportunity in traveling lawyers pining for high-speed Internet access, 20-somethings looking for a place to plug their iPods and vacationers preferring YouTube over the boob tube.

Although the trend is gathering steam, it's a tricky proposition for an industry that is more Flintstones than Jetsons.

"We're a business that's still trying to come to grips with the toaster," charged John Burns, president of Hospitality Technology Consulting in Scottsdale, Ariz. "If you have to turn the knob to make it lighter or darker, we have to think about that."

Still, customers want what they want. In a survey of business travelers this year, 58 percent said free high-speed Internet access was "very" or "extremely" influential in determining where they stayed — triple the proportion from five years earlier.

Although location, price and overall reputation still matter more, "What's really remarkable is that the amenities that have risen fastest in terms of consumer preference are all technologies," said hotel marketer Peter Yesawich, whose company in Orlando, Fla., conducts the annual poll. "There's an expectation that what people have in their home, they will find when traveling."

Generally speaking, that hasn't been true for a long time. The hotel industry's contributions to innovation might have peaked three decades ago when it introduced HBO to the masses. And that happened only because hotels didn't have to pony up any money: Companies such as Lodgenet Entertainment Corp. install satellite or cable TV connections for free, then give hotels a cut of their pay-per-view revenue.

Since then, most major technology improvements have required substantial investments by hotels. That money has been difficult to get, in part because many hotels have split control, with local building owners having to agree with management companies and often a national-brand czar before anything happens.

Grudgingly, many hotel officials now acknowledge that they need to get with the times.

The current round of upgrades is driven by two big constituencies: Guests want Net access. And hotels want flat-screen televisions, which generate in-room movie sales.

"If you have a big screen and surround sound at home, when you come to your hotel and there's a 24-inch tube TV with a mono speaker, you're not going to buy 'Harry Potter,' " said Arnon Levy, chief executive of Guest-Tek Interactive Entertainment, which sells hotels Internet access.

After hotel officials started buying big screens, they realized how unimpressive the picture looked unless both the televisions and the videos were high-definition. And that led to soul-searching, dollar-scrounging and debates about which delivery systems to use.

Independently owned hotels are leading the charge into the future. Their competitors are following, worried about losing customers. Eventually that will lead to hotel stays that aren't quite so frustrating for the connected crowd: guests who want to surf the Net while instant-messaging and playing computer games.

"We're making definite but slow progress," consultant Burns said. Modernization is "scary, because it's expensive and it doesn't work all the time, but ultimately it's not optional."