Hospitality Net

Swisscom and Barceló UK today announced a partnership to provide guests staying at any Barceló UK property with Swisscom’s Premium Internet guest services.

Barceló UK, previously known as Paramount Group of Hotels, comprises 21 luxury and high-end properties in England, Scotland and Wales, with a total of over 2’800 bedrooms and 160 conference rooms.

Swisscom’s suite of Premium Internet guest services includes a range of tailored solutions for guest rooms, meeting rooms and the hotel lobby. Thanks to Swisscom’s web portal Guestroom 2.0®, for instance, hoteliers can propose a bouquet of added-value services to their guests including remote printing, real-time flight information and online access to hundreds of e-newspapers, among others, at no extra charge.

“Both Barceló UK and Swisscom have a strong belief in the future of Internet guest services. More and more guests simply rely on a fast and stable connection while expecting greater personalisation. Swisscom’s rigorous quality standards are a means for us to build customer loyalty on a future-proof network”, says Perry Thomas, IT Director at Barceló UK. “Having worked with Swisscom as a network provider in the meeting space already, we know that they keep their promises and move faster than anyone else if necessary.”

On a day-to-day-basis, Swisscom supports Barceló UK through its dedicated, local Account Management, its 24/7 Network Operations Centre and its multilingual, in-house 24/7 Customer Care Centre that responds to guests and hoteliers alike.

“I am honoured being Barceló UK’s partner of choice in the realm of Internet services”, comments Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services. “I am sure we can meet the highest expectations: We have the products that take the guest experience to the next level, and we have the Internet platform that allows hoteliers to remain flexible with a view to both their guests’ evolving needs and additional guest room services such as IPTV or VoIP to be delivered via the same, convergent infrastructure.”

Swisscom is presently performing targeted infrastructure upgrades at selected Barceló UK properties. Swisscom’s Internet services will be available in all 21 hotels by the end of September.

About Barceló UK | Barceló Group is a privately owned Spanish hospitality and travel company. The activities of the company include the management and operation of 185 hotels and nine convention centres across 15 countries in three continents under an ownership, leasing or management basis as well as the operation of retail travel agencies. The Barceló Group also promotes projects broadly related to the tourism and hotel industries, owning shares in other companies. The Barceló Group carries out its activities in Spain, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the United States, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Turkey and Switzerland, among other countries.

The Barceló Group operates 21 four star quality hotels across the UK, including the prestigious Barceló The Lygon Arms Hotel, the Barceló Edinburgh Carlton Hotel, the Barceló Troon Marine Hotel the Barceló Harrogate Majestic Hotel.

With over 2’800 bedrooms and over 220 conference and meeting rooms across the Group, leisure clubs and spacious grounds for team building and outdoor events in many locations, the hotels offer extensive facilities to both corporate and leisure guests. For more information on Barceló and its hotels, visit www.barcelo-hotels.co.uk.

About Swisscom Hospitality Services | Swisscom is Switzerland's leading telecoms provider with 5.4 million mobile customers and 5.4 million fixed lines, including 1.7 million broadband connections. In the first half of 2008, Swisscom generated revenues of CHF 5.99 billion. The company also provides IT infrastructure outsourcing and manages integrated communications infrastructures for major corporate customers.

Swisscom Hospitality Services, a fully-owned subsidiary of Swisscom, is a global leader in the management of communications infrastructures for hotels. The company helps hotel clients design, build and manage unified data networks to meet their guests’ needs and to run their business more profitably. Every day, more than 2,000 hotels, with 210,000 guestrooms throughout Europe, North America and the Middle East rely on Swisscom Hospitality Services to meet the full range of their communications needs. For more information, please visit www.swisscom.com/hospitality.