Swisscom Hospitality Services is a leading provider of broadband Internet service to the hospitality industry, including well-known chains such as Hyatt, Hilton, Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, and Marriot. Partner hotels across Europe and North America span more than 2,300 active properties, encompassing 200,000 hotel rooms.
With Swisscom's hospitality customers facing increasing price pressure for standard Internet access, the company chose to explore adding more value for guests as an option to standard connectivity. Swisscom surveyed 1,100 hotel guests in five countries in order to better understand the needs of the business traveler. Responses indicated that in terms of customization, traditional Internet service falls short of guest expectations. The survey also identified a range of personalized services that business travelers would value and be willing to pay for in a premium package.
The unmet needs identified in the survey guided the development of Room 2.0, an assembly of web 2.0-based information and communication services for business travelers on top of unlimited downloads and priority bandwidth. Room 2.0 services are delivered through an advertising-free web interface and personalized based on the hotel location and profile of the guest.
Optaros delivered the Room 2.0 platform using its OptAM assembly methodology and pluggable software components. The assembly included ten distinct web services (weather, newspapers, radio, etc.), all accessed via a seamless user interface that provided a unified web experience. The platform, development environment, and support tools are based entirely on proven, cost-effective open source software.
"Optaros quickly and efficiently assembled a complete, customer-centric solution from a large number of separate services and components into a highly reliable, scalable application. Business travelers will love the seamless user experience," says Christian Petit, CEO, Swisscom Hospitality Services.
Four main modules offer a variety of location and user-based services:
"Stay in touch" Unlimited long-distance phone calls
"Explore" Local points of interest, links, maps, and weather
"Enjoy" Electronic newspapers, favorite radio stations
"Streamline Your Journey" Real-time flight information, unit and currency conversion, multi-language dictionary, world clock
The Optaros approach for assembling web 2.0 platforms allowed Room 2.0 to go live in a fraction of the time quoted by other providers. Swisscom also has the flexibility to add virtually any appropriate service as they roll out innovative new offerings that help differentiate their hospitality clients. "With the flexibility of the Optaros Assembly Methodology (OptAM) we plan to continually enhance and add more advanced functionality based on the collective intelligence of our customer base," Petit adds.
Most firms either design the user interface first or choose a technology and then do what it is capable of. Optaros uniquely optimizes jointly by iterating as decisions are made on both user design and technical architecture. This allows for flexibility later in the process and unique experiences for customers.
This ability to jointly optimize the user interface and technology was illustrated when building Room 2.0. Initially, four out of the ten web services lacked the capability to modify their look and feel, resulting in a jarring user experience. Optaros worked directly with the web service providers, demonstrating that a customizable presentation layer would expand interest in their offerings, and helping them enhance their application program interfaces (APIs) to support a customized user experience matching Room 2.0.
The flexible assembly approach enabled the four services, as well as the Ajax interface, to be added just two weeks before launch. This ability to lay the groundwork with service providers, integrate disparate web services in a seamless, unified platform, and make significant changes close to going live are reasons why Optaros is the partner of choice in the web 2.0 space.
While still in the early stages, Room 2.0 is significantly exceeding revenue expectations. Prior to launch, Swisscom estimated that 25% of users would sign up for the Room 2.0 premium service versus the company's standard Internet offering. In the first four weeks of trial at Swisscom's 16 pilot locations in Amsterdam and The Hague the sign-up rate was well above 50%.
Room 2.0 is being rolled out to Swisscom's 2,300 partner properties across Europe and North America as part of the company's mission to offer constant service improvements to its hotel customers. For partner hotels, the new offering provides an opportunity to differentiate from competitors by offering innovative services to their guests, thus increasing guest satisfaction, customer loyalty and ultimately revenue. Continuous user feedback and regular guest surveys ensure ongoing development and guide the introduction of additional value-added features.