Holiday Inn Express talk about Airangel
Andrew Thombs, IT + Systems Development Manager
Holiday Inn Express
12 months prior to contracts ending with our incumbent wired and wireless network suppliers, I was looking for a company that could provide the Somerston Estate and 30 of our Holiday Inn Express hotels with an HSIA solution that met brand standards, whilst at the same time providing a range of tiered internet access options. These options were to range from ‘FREE’ to chargeable, subject to the time or bandwidth required by each guest.
My search took me through the main providers from within the HSIA space but none came up with the Flexibility or control that I needed. The main aim for us was to maximise revenue, whilst offering the best level of customer service and at the same time adapt and develop a system to suit the needs and reporting requirements Somerston had as a company. They also had to show due to new legislation, how they exactly monitored and dealt with lawful intercept compliancy.
Airangels ability to demonstrate their helpdesk and show how their 24/7 technical support had a live window into what was going on in each hotel was very impressive, especially as I had the same view into the system. This has enabled Somerston to instantly create a range of detailed reports, by tariff, what revenues have been generated on an hotel by hotel and overall Estate basis. It has also allowed us to monitor guest support calls and the expediency to which the airangel support teams have handled each situation. Since the systems have been in place at the first 13 hotels, revenue has increased and any support calls that have been made have been dealt with quickly and professionally by the airangel support teams, this has led to higher guest and front of house satisfaction throughout all of the hotels.
To add taking into account the amount of hotels and varying wired and wireless legacy systems in place, on swapping over of systems, to both mine and the GMs delight the installation process was a pain free and smooth procedure. It has been a real pleasure working with a company who actually listens, communicates and gives constant feedback to its customers and actually goes one step further in exceeding expectations.
By the end of the year 30 of the 33 hotels will be converted over to the airangel service. Once this has happened we will then be able to roll out new marketing initiatives using the Holiday Inn Express portal and create estate wide roaming accounts for corporate clients wishing to use the HSIA service. This will help sales and marketing when selling rooms to corporate clients and give our clients more reason to book one of our hotels or become a priority member.
I am always travelling, but would be happy to discuss with any prospective IHG or non IHG franchisee the airangel service and highly recommend giving them the time to assess your hotels guest HSIA requirements.
