IP Infrastructure Enables Hampshire Hotels & Resorts to Deliver “Three-Screen” Guest Services

By: Brendan McNamara, VP Brand Development and Communications, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, LLC

For a business-class hotel, guest satisfaction is a critical revenue driver. Guests today live a mobile lifestyle and they expect to keep connected when on the road. In addition to providing a remote office and home away from home, hotels also face the interrelated challenges of generating new revenue and optimizing operations.

When Hampshire Hotels & Resorts decided to double the number of hotel properties in coming years, the hotel company implemented a plan to improve its voice and data infrastructure to take amenities to new heights and keep the hotel group ahead of its competitors. What the hotel group implemented is an IP infrastructure that keeps it ahead of competitors by offering guests content as they want it — via a VoIP phone, television screen or computer screen. This so-called “three-screen” ability is the ultimate in flexible infrastructure — bringing together the group’s people, networks, processes and knowledge to deliver superior customer service.

“Guest satisfaction is vital. We want our guests to be impressed that they’re staying with a hotel company that is using cutting edge technology,” said Jay Stein, Chief Operating Officer, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts.

Hampshire Hotels & Resorts wanted to enhance its guest experience, raise its “repeat ratio” and achieve competitive differentiation. Additionally, the hotel company wanted to optimize operations while cutting costs and going green.

Hampshire Hotels & Resorts installed an integrated voice and data network from Alcatel-Lucent (News - Alert) to update its infrastructure and deliver new customer services. The updated infrastructure’s local area network (LAN) was designed with OmniSwitch 6800 switches in the core and stackable OmniStack 6200 Ethernet workgroup switches on the edge. The solution also includes a wired and wireless converged architecture and applications architecture. The growing list of hosted applications to enhance the user experience includes voice mail, managed security, VoIP telephony, power management system (PMS), content management, and IPTV (News - Alert) (Internet Protocol Television) applications.

The infrastructure overhaul delivered an integrated information access system all over a common cabling infrastructure, allowing for more guest services with lower costs.

Voice communications are a critical business asset for hotels from the initial reservation through the entire guest stay. However, it is no secret that the guests’ use of traditional landline phones in the hotel has declined over the years. For Hampshire Hotels & Resorts, each phone switch used to make the hotel group about $240,000 per year, now the hotel group does not make any money from these switches. However, the phone is a necessity for emergency reasons and is not something that the hotel group can do away with completely. With its updated technologies, the hotel group has revitalized the use of telephone communications and guests can experience solutions that enhance business and security operations.

Today’s guests are living a mobile lifestyle, with access to technologies such as mobile phones and laptop computers. While these constantly evolving technologies present hotels with new challenges, hotels can leverage the demands of the mobile guest as a significant profit opportunity.

According to a recent report by Yankee Group (News - Alert), the consumer demand for broadband connectivity experiences will drive a $1 trillion market worldwide in the next five years. Yankee explains that businesses should make transformations now to stay ahead of competition and provide consumers with what they want and need. The Yankee Group study also believes that the emergence of the “Anywhere Consumer” will be one of the most significant trends in the next decade. These are exactly the type of people that Hampshire Hotels & Resorts expects will be their future guests.

The hotel group has deployed a variety of IP, TDM and XML-application phones to tie together guests and its back-office operations. Using the OmniPCX Enterprise platform, each hotel is able to centralize all telephony applications, and the phone system and also to create a seamless VoIP network across all Hampshire Hotels & Resorts properties from the U.S. to India and Thailand.

With wireless and IP telephony as well as advanced collaboration tools, guests and staff can stay connected to the information they need. For example, the hotel can put the standard hotel directory or room service menu on the phone or television to allow guests to make requests quickly and easily.

Hampshire Hotels & Resorts implemented IP Touch phones that include display screens that are preprogrammed with graphic menus and offer a range of customized services including language preference. When guests dial the Concierge or other staff member, they see a photo of that person on the phone’s LCD display, enabling them to recognize the employee if they see them later during their visit.

The IP Touch phones are also linked to video cameras, enabling guests to monitor children playing in an adjoining room or see who is at the door. An additional emergency feature provides audio and text notification to be sent immediately via the hotel’s wireless network to guest and employee devices. These advanced features allow guests a higher level of safety and comfort in their home away from home.

For business guests in need of creating a mobile office, Hampshire implemented a wide range of solutions for business mobility. Business guests have access to Skype (News - Alert)-ready, a telecommunications solution that allows for cost-effective international calls. Additionally guests can use the Bluetooth-enabled VoIP handsets, to support their need to be mobile.

In addition to the IP-enabled network, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts implemented advanced contact center that enables its staff to handle the needs of multiple properties with personalized guest attention and detailed knowledge about each property’s availability and facilities. When guests call a property, a centralized team member can view availability and book a room for that location with all of the correct information about the unique features and amenities of that hotel. The guest feels like they’ve called someone local to that property. As the advanced contact center technologies allow for a streamlined communications process, the hotel group can also experience significant cost savings with a smaller, more efficient staff.

These solutions benefit the employees of Hampshire Hotels & Resorts as they have access to real-time contact with staff and to information. The solutions can improve response times from the front office to food and beverage services, even over its largest properties.

“Alcatel-Lucent is providing the expertise and technology to really transform the operations and communications systems at Hampshire Hotels & Resorts,” Stein said.

With its new infrastructure, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts will enhance the ways its guests access the world, allowing for a seamless transition from the home or office. This allows the hotel group to deliver an outstanding guest experience by connecting people and highly personalized information with a sense of security and simplicity.

“We’re building a system that will heighten guest satisfaction. If guests have a fantastic experience, our repeat ratio goes up, said Brendan McNamara, VP Brand Development and Communications, Hampshire Hotels & Resorts. “So we’re working to offer the ‘Wow!’ factors that really make a difference for guests while also being easy to use.” IT

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