The Crowne Plaza provides exceptional hospitality and facilities to all of its guests, and with a suite of 342 rooms in the hotel and 86 luxury apartments at 51 Buckingham Gate it was important that the additional services and facilities that they offer guests are to the same high standard.

Four years ago the Crowne Plaza hotel realised that to gain an edge over the competition, the hotel had to make sure that in this interactive age  high speed internet connection was available to everyone who staying in the hotel, not just to a few.  

Although wired internet connection has been available in 128 bedrooms and 70 apartments since 2003, the Crowne Plaza was keen to upgrade this so all rooms and suites benefitted from the same high speed internet service. This move was seen as essential in improving the quality of the stay that guests receive, as high speed internet connection was becoming a must for more and more visitors.

In early 2007 RIEO Communications upgraded the HSIA solution to all of its remaining rooms. The completed upgrade sees new modems in all bedrooms and apartments, delivering up to 76 megabits of speed over the existing telephone cabling. Even more impressive is the fact that the modems are powered over the same telephone cabling vs. local power transformers in the bedrooms. This means no more failed connections due to the guest charging their phone/laptop/camera etc without unplugging the modem.

RIEO Communications offers a unique service to hotels as once the internet access has been installed the hotel has full ownership of the service. This means that the hotel can determine what it charges to guests to use the connection, and is not locked into any long, iron clad contracts. In addition they have a twenty four hour helpline, which improves customer service and loyalty.

“We've had excellent service from RIEO Communications throughout our time with them,” says Leon Smallbone, IT manager at the Crowne Plaza. “Whenever we've needed to contact them they have been prompt in responding, and we had no hesitation in expanding the internet connection to the remaining rooms and apartments in the hotel as the service has been outstanding.”

Due to the fact that Crowne Plaza have ownership of the internet connection, revenue from the network has been impressive, along with a new influx of guests coming to stay.

According to Leon the vast majority of this revenue has come from room connections. “I can't say whether the network itself has attracted additional business or conferences, because this kind of service is expected as a matter of course,” he notes, “however, with the network provision set to triple as a result of the upgrade I am expecting a comparable leap in revenue.”