Published on : Friday, November 22, 2013
Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, recently awarded AA Hotel Group of the Year 2013/14 for the second time in six years, confirmed it has signed a deal with WiFi provider, The Cloud, to provide free WiFi across its UK-wide owned hotels.
Implemented across 39 hotels this latest £1million investment ensures conference, business travel and leisure guests will be able to take advantage of unlimited and free WiFi internet access in public hotel areas, all bedrooms and meeting rooms. At a further 14 key conference and meeting venues, including the four-red star Macdonald Windsor Hotel, extra investment has enabled the capacity to offer meetings/conferences up to 100 megabytes per second of dedicated, extra bandwidth, ideal for video conferencing, Skype or large downloads from multiple devices.
Macdonald Hotels & Resorts decision to roll out free WiFi comes as BDRC Continental’s 2013 Hotel Guest Survey reveals 82% of business travellers now own a mobile device while free WiFi in hotels is seen as the top functional product and service priority for business guests in their hotel selection. The deal with The Cloud, who service thousands of retail and hospitality outlets across the UK, ensures that all the business traveller needs are met.
“More and more guests see free, reliable internet access as a crucial part of their hotel visit, whether that’s using social media to share holiday updates, business travellers who want to catch up on emails or access documents remotely or conference organisers who need to enable delegates full access to the internet as part of their training, presentation or workshop,” explained David Guile, Chief Executive at Macdonald Hotels & Resorts. “To provide our guests with the service they expect we need to offer WiFi that enables them to get online quickly and easily. This is a free, unlimited service, meaning people can spend as long as necessary online to ensure they get the most out of their stay.
And our focus on investment doesn’t stop there. Our ongoing IT strategy includes upgrading the infrastructure of several key meeting hotels to enable them to offer extra, dedicated, fast and secure bandwidth which is increasingly important in today’s technology-fuelled world where we all need fast online access via a laptop, tablet and smart phone at the same time”
The WiFi deal withThe Cloudand introduction of additional dedicated bandwidth is the latest development by the hotel group as part of a £6million ongoing hotel and ‘back-office’ investment programme, which has included signing up with global channel manager, SiteMinder, rolling out IDeaS revenue management system across the group and a number of hotel investments, most recently a £1million investment into Macdonald Forest Hills Hotel & Spa in Aberfoyle and a £1million brand new golf clubhouse at Macdonald Aviemore Resort.
Source: Macdonald Hotels & Resorts
Tags: Hotel News, Macdonald Hotels & Resorts, technology news
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