Inter-Continental Rolls Out Systemwide Tech Support
<B>Inter-Continental Rolls Out Systemwide Tech Support</B>
By Bruce Serlen
Inter-Continental Hotels & Resorts last month announced an expansion of its CyberAssist program to all its properties worldwide. The program provides onsite technological support and equipment to travelers on a 24-hour basis.
In expanding the program, Inter-Continental joined other upper upscale and deluxe hotel companies in acknowledging that their business guests carried laptops, cell phones and other handheld electronic devices with them with increasing frequency and that they often required assistance in maintaining them.
Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., for example, has a comparable program, known as the Technology Butler, while Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts has its Compconcierge. In each case, the underlying strategy was the same. Always known for providing high-end personal guest amenities, these chains needed to broaden this perception of elite service to include technological support as well. In other words, laptops would get the same level of personalized care as the guest room's Frette bedsheets and Dom Perignon-stocked minibar.
Full-service and midprice hotel chains had learned earlier that business travelers across all strata within corporations had become technology-dependent in their jobs and that they were carrying this technology with them on the road. Now the upper upscale and deluxe chains have recognized that middle management travelers were not the only ones checking in with laptops, cell phones and Palm Pilots in tow. Increasingly, their core clientele--the CFOs, COOs and CEOs--were too.
To implement the CyberAssist program, Inter-Continental, which is a unit of Bass Hotels & Resorts, identified managers at its properties who were especially trained in technology. "These CyberAssist coordinators are available to assist in setting up travelers' computers and connecting them to the hotel's power and telephone systems," said Charles Brownfield, Bass senior vice president of marketing for the Americas.
Coordinators provide support for word processing and spreadsheet packages, Web browsers, e-mail applications and scanners and other hardware. If necessary, they arrange for equipment repairs. Brownfield said the chain is committed to sending coordinators to outside training courses and new product demonstrations.
Inter-Continental beta tested the concept in its Asia/Pacific properties before rolling it out to its 138-property system. Customer research found that at least 80 percent of their business travelers carried laptops. For them--as well as the remaining 20 percent--the chain has stocked each business center with a PC, range of power adapters, modem and telephone adapters, at least one IBM- compatible notebook computer and boot diskettes of various OS versions. Internet access is available in each hotel.
"We saw that travelers' needs in this regard were changing at a very fast rate and that we would have to keep pace in order to keep these travelers as guests," Brownfield said.
At Ritz-Carlton, meanwhile, the systemwide Technology Butler program is nearing its first anniversary. "We chose the concept because butler service was meant to anticipate guests' unexpressed wishes and needs," said Scott Rohm, vice president of rooms. "We then enhanced the idea by trying to eliminate executives' potential frustrations over technological problems."
The top tech issues Ritz-Carlton's butlers have had to deal with include: access to the Internet and e-mail, compatibility of software and hardware, use of the in-room fax and voltage conversion/adapters for international travelers.
Four Seasons has an employee within each of its properties' MIS departments acting as a "compcierge." By offering surge protectors, powerstrips and universal power converters/adapters to travelers as needed, they help keep tech problems to a minimum.