Leading Luxury Hotel in Singapore Drives Revenues and Guest Satisfaction through interTouch’s Broadband Solutions

Concorde Hotel Singapore, formerly known as Le Meridien Singapore is located in the heart of Orchard Road within walking distance to the Istana (Presidential Palace), major shopping malls and museums.

Its convenient location close to the city’s shopping malls and offices has made Concorde Hotel Singapore one of the most sought after hotels for business and leisure travelers.

In addition, the hotel offers unparalleled meeting and event facilities, with a pillar-less ballroom and ten function rooms for up to 800 guests. The hotel also offers a wide range of fine and casual dining options that can tempt any palate, as well as a host of recreational facilities.

With broadband usage becoming increasingly common, hotels are offering more than a good night’s rest to woo customers. Networking technologies such as in-room broadband and Wi-Fi hotspots are increasingly becoming standard amenities for tech-savvy travelers.

In fact, travelers today are conditioned to expect connectivity not only in their rooms, but also anywhere within the hotel - be it in the restaurants, lobby, conference rooms or even by the pool. And properties which are not quick enough to anticipate and meet these expectations are those which will inevitably lose market share. With the high-yield business traveler forming the bulk of those with highest broadband demands, these hotels will stand to lose out more than just revenues from broadband.

Concorde Hotel Singapore recognized the significance of providing broadband technologies as an integral part of its service offerings to guests. The hotel caters predominantly to the corporate sector, with business travelers forming 70% of its clientele.

Prior to its migration to DOCOMO interTouch’s broadband connectivity, the hotel’s networking infrastructure was based on Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) modems provided by a competitor vendor. Guest dissatisfaction over its Internet service was one of the most common complaints the hotel received.

The hotel was keen to move to a fully managed broadband service which it believes will not only deliver higher returns on customer satisfaction, but also will enable the hotel to focus on its core business operations. Moreover, the hotel was also looking for a service provider who is able to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to after-sales support.

“Putting in the hardware is a one-off exercise but how it works afterwards is what counts, and after-sales service was an important factor in our decision to select interTouch as the partner for our broadband needs,” said Mr Claude Rath, General Manager for Concorde Hotel Singapore. “They were able to demonstrate a long term commitment to looking after the needs of our customers and resolve issues as they arise.”

Concorde Hotel Singapore worked with Singapore-based broadband service provider, DOCOMO interTouch, to revamp and upgrade the hotel’s networking system.

The hotel undertook the redesign and installation of the entire network infrastructure. Work began in April 2006 and the hotel opted for gradual implementation to minimize disruption to guests. The entire process took four months to complete.

Apart from providing wired broadband Internet connection to all of the hotel’s 407 guestrooms, DOCOMO interTouch also installed wireless broadband connections in its public areas. Moreover, the hotel, which handles a high volume of corporate meetings, also redesigned its conference and meetings facilities to offer both wired and wireless broadband access. Prior to DOCOMO interTouch, the hotel did not have built-in Internet access in its meeting rooms. Not only did DOCOMO interTouch provide the solution, but did so ahead of its contractual obligation, enabling Concorde Hotel to fulfill demands from a confirmed conference group. Using DOCOMO interTouch’s multiconnect, multiple users are able to connect via high-quality and easy-to-use broadband Internet access within a meeting or conference environment.

This is not the first time that Concorde Hotel has used DOCOMO interTouch to overhaul its network system. In 2003, Concorde Hotel's flagship property in Europe, Le Meridien Montparnasse, underwent a similar exercise to introduce broadband services to all its rooms, public areas and meetings facilities. The hotel was a pilot for the Group with DOCOMO interTouch to install broadband services in its properties. The ease and efficiency with which the project was carried out, as well as the results afterwards convinced Mr Rath, then based in Montparnasse, to use DOCOMO interTouch for Concorde Hotel in Singapore.

“Le Meridien Montparnasse was a benchmark to gauge the ease and success of implementation. Redesigning the network infrastructure for all of the hotel’s 953 rooms was no easy task. In addition, Le Meridien Montparnasse also has one of the largest convention facility linked directly to a hotel. We found that not only was the shift to DOCOMO interTouch’s system extremely successful, I was also impressed by their after-sales support,” said Mr Rath.

In addition, the DOCOMO interTouch system was also able to interface with Concorde Hotel's property management system, Opera Fidelio.

For Concorde Hotel, switching to dedicated broadband service makes sound business sense. Increasingly, people are performing more functions over the Internet than just sending emails, and fast-speed, reliable and secure connectivity is becoming the norm rather than exception and a major factor in guest fulfillment.

Investment in converting to DOCOMO interTouch’s broadband connectivity has paid off and Concorde Hotel Singapore has seen guests complaints dwindle to nearly zero. Moreover, DOCOMO interTouch 24/7 multilingual helpdesk also helped to improve guest satisfaction by providing customer and technical support in their native languages.

From the service point of view, what came as a surprise was the revenue derived from the in-room broadband connectivity.

“When we embarked on this, we expected that connectivity demand was going to be driven by the banqueting side rather than from the rooms,” explained Mr Rath. “What we found was the reverse with in-room connections providing the revenues and driving guest satisfaction. It goes to show that business travelers still prefer to work within the comfort of their rooms.”

Since moving from ADSL to dedicated broadband, Concorde Hotel Singapore has witnessed a five-fold increase in revenues.

Moreover, this was achieved with little operating expenditure from the hotel, and DOCOMO interTouch as part of its service, ensured that Concorde Hotel's internet offerings kept pace with the latest technology developments.

Moving ahead, Concorde Hotel will explore expanding its broadband services from current fixed time to more flexible packages that are tailored around guests’ needs and usage patterns.