WHILE on holiday in Barcelona with her mother last month, Laura Caddick had seen Torre Agbar plenty of folks tooling around on red-and-white bicycles. But the bikes that she saw everywhere - part of the town's bicycle-sharing program - were to be used by local residents only. Torre Agbar

fortunately , Ms. Caddick's hotel, ME Barcelona, had several bicycles for guests. 'We rode down to the beach, then to the port and up to the Ramblas, stopping for drinks and lunch along the way,' said Ms. Caddick, a sports wear merchandiser from Liverpool, Britain. She and her mother each paid twenty EU Bucks, or $26.40 at $1.32 to the euro, to hire the bikes for four hours and felt they saw more of Barcelona than they might had they taken the Metro from their hotel. 'We felt we were experiencing the town from a more local point of view.'

In recent years, from Paris to Rome, new urban cycling lanes and public bike-sharing programs have been becoming more popular. And while some travelers arenot able to link into all the cycling opportunities - in Paris, as an example, the check-out meters for the Vlib', a public bicycle-rental program, will not accept most Yank mastercards ( they lack a vital microchip ) - there are a few hostels that offer guests use of bikes for a little fee or no charge in the slightest.

'It's become a new way for hotels to show their greenness,' announced Jonathan Barsky, vice president for research at Market Metrix, which gauges customer satisfaction in hospitality corporations.

The bikes, which are generally upright models, have proved to be popular, particularly among vacationing guests, though business travelers have been observed to cycle to an appointment, according to several hotels

The Hotel Gates in Berlin, which introduced 12 red bikes last May, making them available to guests without charge, has just ordered 4 more bikes for the high season

'Sometimes the guests ask for a bike, and theyare all gone,' expounded Kirsten Kurbjuhn, the general manager, adding that more than sixty p.c of the guests who fill out the hotel's customer-feedback test say the bikes are'a highly valuable service,' and 20 p.c say they are one of the reasons they selected the hotel.

Astrid Boh, a management advisor from Frankfurt who scheduled a room at the Hotel Gates for a business journey at the end of March, did not know about the bikes before her arrival. But after hearing about them at the reception desk, she was glad she had taken a taxi from the airfield rather than renting a car.Torre Agbar.

'Parking is a challenge in Berlin,' said Ms. Boh, who pedaled to a business meeting, shops and even out to dinner at night. 'I liked being able to get somewhere fast and get some exercise at the same time.'

Some hotels prepare with nearby cycle shops to have bikes available for guests. A day's use of a bike is included in the Green, Greener, Berlin package at the Mvenpick Hotel Berlin, which leases the bikes from a local company. The package also includes bath salts, possibly for calming sore muscles after a demanding outing.

But increasingly hotels are making an investment in their own fleets - and picking models that strengthen the identity of the hotel.

In Aug, Le Meurice, a Parisian hotel that occupies an 1835 palace across from the Tuileries, displayed 5 retro-style bikes in the blue-green shade of the oxidized copper roofs of the town, with matching helmets and front baskets emblazoned with the hotel's gold emblem. Yank and UK guests in their 30s have a tendency to be the most enthusiastic customers, according to the hotel ; Le Meurice's sister hotel, the plaza Athne, opted for zippy red bikes with panniers.

At the Victoria-Jungfrau Grand Hotel & Spa in Interlaken in the Swiss Alps, guests can check out Scott mountain bikes - the same model the Liverpool football Club, which used the hotel as its training base for the last two summers, rode to get to and from football practice, pedaling in their red-and-black training shorts and jerseys while fans lined their trail.

Staff members at the ME Barcelona, part of the Sol Meli hotel chain, visited several bike shops before settling on the silvery fold-up bikes that were introduced in September at the hotel, housed in a modernist tower clad in anodized aluminum.

'We always like to be on the edge of technology,' said Pete Zudyk, VP for brand invention and communication for Sol Meli.

naturally, some hotels have provided bikes for a number of years. The Hotel Hassler in Rome has had them for two decades, according to Vivian Barsanti, the media and promoting coordinator.

In bike-happy Copenhagen, which has special small traffic lights for bike riders and obviously marked cycling lanes, bikes have long been the standard hotel offering.

.