30 January 2014

Louvre Hotels IS said to be the second-largest hotel group in Europe, and operates over 1,100 hotels in 42 countries.

Louvre Hotels, said to be the second-largest hotel group in Europe, is using its managed network service from Colt to upgrade the guest experience across the board with new mobile applications.

The group operates more than 1,100 hotels in 42 countries ranging from luxury to budget. Its brands include: Première Classe, Campanile, Kyriad, Kyriad Prestige, Tulip Inn, Golden Tulip and Royal Tulip. Because of a slow economy, competition is fierce and the company aims to use technology to ensure efficient, always-on access to business critical systems. It also wants to provide guests with innovative booking and check-in services and reliable Wi-Fi,while reducing network and IT costs.

Network-enabled technology now allows guests to use mobile phones to make reservations, check-in, unlock their rooms (via NFC), access complimentary Wi-Fi services, pay bills, and to check-out.

UK-based Colt has worked with Louvre for over 10 years. It currently provides a fully managed Ethernet network that gives the group’s French hotels access to its centralised property management system (PMS) which is hosted in the group’s data centre. The PMS handles all aspects of each hotel’s operations from the moment a booking is made via any channel, through to when a guest pays their bill and checks out. All information is updated in real-time. Previously, each hotel ran its own PMS, with IT specialists on site to support it.

Colt also provides Louvre with outbound and inbound voice services.

The costs of national and international outbound calls, including those made by guests using the phones in their rooms, are over 30 per cent lower compared with the group’s previous telephony supplier.

Thierry Guiraudios, SVP of IT for the Louvre Hotels group, says its centralised PMS gives the hotelier consistent operations and management reporting across all hotels, allowing staff to be 100 per cent customer-focused. A backup network forms part of the Colt solution to ensure permanent access to the PMS.

The company decided to centralise the PMS more than 10 years ago to reduce the cost of IT and pave the way for new services. At the time, it was a ground-breaking move in the European hotel industry. Success depended entirely on the quality of the network connectivity.

Guiraudios says Louvre originally chose Colt because of its dynamic approach, extensive portfolio of up-to-date solutions, and competitive pricing.