Novotel

Swisscom Hospitality has been selected by Accor to provide the high-speed Internet access (HSIA) which powers the free Wi-Fi now available at 194 hotels in the UK including the ibis, Novotel, Mercure and Pullman brands. Guest satisfaction with HSIA service in Accor UK locations has been extremely high in July as a result of Swisscom taking over the service.

Swisscom Hospitality was chosen as the group’s partner to deliver a consistent quality high-speed Internet access (HSIA) guest experience. Before the summer, Swisscom went through a process of surveying the existing infrastructure in all locations and performing the necessary network upgrades to offer a reliable service even for large numbers of simultaneous users. Additionally, wired connectivity was introduced to those locations proposing conference services. Swisscom also provided Accor UK with a set of customised login portals per brand and location; hotel operators can now use these portals to promote their other hotel services and to further personalise the service delivery.

Swisscom’s advanced network management tools provide hotel IT managers with an active view of their hotel networks in real-time. Moreover, they enable a stringent monthly and quarterly review of key performance indicators such as service availability, bandwidth consumption, data up- and downloads, both on a time-line and per hotel area. The reporting function also allows Accor’s IT managers to extrapolate emerging usage patterns (such as frequently used devices and applications) which in turn can be used to continually improve and adapt the guest service offering to changing demand.

"I am very proud to serve Accor across the UK," says Bob Durie, sales and operations director for Swisscom Hospitality Services. "Our technology is perfectly suited to serve a group of that size, as it is inherently flexible to meet differing hotel and guest needs, and on top of that yields important economies of scale for our client. We will do everything to support Accor’s HSIA commitment in the UK, and we look forward to adding value to their operations, be it by further personalising the guest Internet experience or by adding more services to the Swisscom-operated hotel network."