Astra Hotel Vevey ALE and Swisspro
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BRANCHE REGION COMPANY EVENT SWITZERLAND ASTRA HOTEL VEVEY Astra Hotel Vevey Compliments of the hotel: Astra Hotel Vevey enhances a first-class guest experience with first-class connectivity ALE and swisspro Solutions get together to deliver modern, reliable guest Wi-Fi using Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar Access Points. Case Study Astra Hotel Vevey The four-star Astra Hotel has been a family-owned ASTRA HOTEL VEVEY: FACTS & FIGURES establishment for over 50 years. Located in Vevey on the shores of Lake Geneva, it has developed an excellent • Astra Hotel Vevey is a family owned and reputation for providing warm hospitality and a “home away managed four-star hotel located on the Montreux from home” for travelers and business guests alike. Riviera in Lavaux region of Switzerland. As part of its ongoing efforts to continuously enhance the • With over 100 rooms and suites available to guests, the Astra Hotel also offers a wide range guest experience, the hotel needed to replace its legacy guest of business and conference facilities, a choice Wi-Fi service with a future-proof, high speed solution. of restaurants including the historical Brasserie La Coupole 1912 and breath-taking panoramic Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar Access Points have rooftop amenities. been deployed by long-standing ALE business partner swisspro Solutions to provide pervasive, high-quality guest • The highspeed Wi-Fi solution is part of the connectivity throughout the hotel. extensive renovation and upgrade undertaken by the hotel and completed in March 2019. Enhancing the Astra Hotel digital guest offering For more information, visit: https://www.astra-hotel.ch/ Astra Hotel Vevey, a four-star, family owned hotel in the heart of Switzerland’s Montreux Riviera region, has developed a strong reputation for style, personal service and warm hospitality. The hotel boasts over 100 rooms, suites and conference halls tailored to guests, tourists and business groups. A team of 55 employees provides 24-hour service including restaurants, a modern bar and fitness facilities. The Astra Hotel had built up a positive sentiment among guests over the years, and the hotel’s owners, keen to maintain the highest levels of service and a modern guest experience, identified the digital guest offerings required an upgrade. The legacy guest Wi-Fi service, which offered limited configurability and slow data speed, was set for renovation. “Today’s guests are increasingly connected and expect access to fast, reliable connectivity wherever they go,” says Christophe Ming, General Manager of the Astra Hotel. “To continue providing a world-class level of service, we needed to replace our existing Wi-Fi service to provide a modern, high quality offering to guests.” The selection process – bringing IT in-house The new Wi-Fi solution needed to continuously support up to 180 guests plus business conference attendees simultaneously. A key project requirement for the Astra Hotel was to buy hardware and manage Wi-Fi operations in-house, rather than relying on rented IT equipment and management by a third-party provider. “Our legacy Wi-Fi was provided by a third-party operator which limited our ability to tailor the service to better meet our requirements, and the hotel incurred regular costs renting the hardware,” says Christophe Ming. “We required a modern Wi-Fi solution that could be comprehensively managed and configured internally.” Trusted ALE partner swisspro Solutions was selected to supply and install the new solution. Swisspro Solutions has a strong reputation for delivering advanced IT solutions to the Swiss hospitality industry, so was well-placed to propose a complete Wi-Fi overhaul and a solution based on Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar technology. Swift, high Case Study Astra Hotel Vevey 2 quality customer service and advanced product capabilities were key ABOUT SWISSPRO SOLUTIONS factors in the Astra Hotel selection of ALE and swisspro Solutions for this swisspro Solutions AG is a premium ALE business project. partner specialising in the deployment of network “Selecting ALE and swisspro Solutions for this project wasn’t a and communication solutions and smart building decision we took lightly,” comments Christophe Ming. “The Astra Hotel systems. management team carried out extensive market and competitor research An ALE strategic partner since 2012, swisspro and found ALE solutions to be both high quality and cost-effective.” Solutions was awarded the ALE Business Partner swisspro Solutions managed the Wi-Fi project from start to finish, Excellence Award in 2018 for outstanding proposing a development tailored to the specific requirements of Astra achievements in helping Swiss organisations Hotel and ensuring installation was completed in a quick and discreet successfully adopt ALE products and solutions. manner For more information, visit: https://www.swisspro.ch Instant availability, zero disruption The new solution became fully operational in September, 2018. Once the project details were agreed by all stakeholders, swisspro Solutions technical experts rapidly completed the installation. This ensured downtime caused by switching from legacy Wi-Fi to the new solution was measured in minutes, not hours. “Keeping guest disruption to a minimum during installation was a key requirement for the Astra Hotel team,” says Philippe Bürki, Head of Sales West at swisspro Solutions. “Stellar access points offer both quick and intuitive deployment, and to further minimize downtime we put the new Wi-Fi solution live in the hotel floor-by-floor.” Astra Hotel Vevey now offers high speed Wi-Fi for guests, operating on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands for greater reliability. Wi-Fi services are easily managed and configured internally by the Astra Hotel management team. Astra Hotel guests can simply connect and register for free Wi-Fi through a branded form with customized welcome text. The hotel’s management team can accurately capture guest registration details and redirect Wi-Fi users to customer surveys and relevant hotel promotions. “We needed the physical hardware installation to be both fast and discreet, and swisspro Solutions delivered,” says Christophe Ming. “We’ve been able to immediately enjoy the benefits of the new solution, and have already begun developing and rolling out customized registration screens and guest promotions.” Serving up future-proof guest connectivity Today, the new Astra Hotel guest Wi-Fi solution has been operating without any issues for over six months. The Astra Hotel management plan to further upgrade data speeds from 100 Mb/s to 200 Mb/s in the coming months, increasing the bandwidth available to both guests and the hotel’s administrative team. «Maintaining our excellent reputation among guests and developing customer loyalty is a priority for us. We have glowing feedback on review sites and social media and providing a best-of-breed Wi-Fi solution for our guests is another piece in the puzzle,» says Christophe Ming, General Manager of the Astra Hotel. «The new Wi-Fi solution works exactly as intended, so we’ve had no need for further technical support from ALE or swisspro Solutions.» Case Study Astra Hotel Vevey 3 Philippe Bürki, Head of Sales West at swisspro Solutions explains the reasons CHALLENGES for the project’s success. «We worked closely with the Astra Hotel team since • Legacy Wi-Fi guest offering day one to ensure we had a comprehensive picture of their requirements and • Reliant on rented IT equipment and third- could deliver the new Wi-Fi solution with minimal disruption. Thanks to the party management simplicity of the Stellar access point installation, we’ve been able to deliver this project in a timescale convenient to the hotel to avoid disrupting guests and hotel • Slow data traffic operations.» SOLUTION «At ALE, we recognize the importance for hoteliers to provide guest connectivity and mobility services as standard without the need for major investment,» says • Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar Access Ralph Hürlimann, Channel Sales Manager at ALE. “Our Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Points Stellar range of access points offer a friction-free installation, simple scalability and a consistently high quality of service – ideal for the hospitality industry.” BENEFITS • High-speed secure guest Wi-Fi • Pervasive, hotel-wide connectivity • Enhanced configuration and management capabilities www.al-enterprise.com The Alcatel-Lucent name and logo are trademarks of Nokia used under license by ALE. To view other trademarks used by affiliated companies of ALE Holding, visit: www.al-enterprise.com/en/legal/trademarks-copyright. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Neither ALE Holding nor any of its affiliates assumes any responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. © 2019 ALE International. All rights reserved. MPR00391166-en (June 2019).