Wifirst and The Ascott: a tailor-made connectivity solution at a European level
Wifirst has been selected by The Ascott Limited to support The Crest Collection and Citadines brands across Europe for all connectivity requirements. The Ascott Limited is one of the leading International Owner/Operator of serviced apartments in the hospitality industry. The company is committed to the continuous modernisation of its properties and for this reason, has chosen Wifirst to provide a connectivity foundation to its 50 European...
Photo by Wifirst
// PARTNERSHIP HISTORY
A strong relationship with The Ascott as its single partners for connectivity
The partnership with The Ascott Group started almost 8 years ago, with a single property called The Cavendish in London Mayfair, UK. With a defined budget and just one month for the deployment of a full infrastructure and WiFi service install, Wifirst had a challenge on its hands. Shortly after, a European-wide RFP was put out to tender and after our demonstrated success in London, Wifirst was chosen by The Ascott Group to undergo a massive redeployment for their 40 European properties. 3 years later, The Ascott Group renewed their trust in Wifirst by extending and upgrading all their properties to an even higher standard, adding greater radio coverage throughout their portfolio. In fact, The Ascott was looking for a reliable partner with their hands on new technologies so they could concentrate on their core business: to make sure the guests find their home away from home.
The Wifirst solution is now in use across all of the group’s European properties guaranteeing free super high-speed WiFi that guests can access from everywhere in their rooms, suites, apartments and lobbies and all of its communal spaces.
// WIFI AS A SERVICE: THE RESPONSE TO THE ASCOTT'S CONNECTIVITY CHALLENGES
From modernisation to avant-garde
The digitalisation of hotels has made WiFi critical for businesses and its scalable multi-service WiFi offer enables Wifirst to address the challenges of its customers' digital transformation: simplified management, a single point of contact, cost optimisation, increased quality of service and productivity and an enhanced customer and employee experience.
For the Ascott, Wifirst created a form of digital backbone for each hotel, which enables the connectivity of many different devices and services under the same network. Smart TVs and Chromecast are some examples of services that can be added, the latter giving guest room TV’s a new lease of life, enhancing the overall guest experience. Wifirst also increased the radio coverage on the 5Ghz spectrum, and therefore the quality of device connectivity. This means a faster and more reliable WiFi connection is available throughout, also allowing the staff to become more efficient in remote areas at the property. This foundation paves the way to numerous enhancements that have led to increased revenue generation opportunities for the Ascott properties.
A multi-service solution to meet business challenges and improve the customer experience
Connectivity has become key for both The Ascott customers and employees. In 2019, as part of its transformational journey to digitalise its business from the core, The Ascott upgraded to a cloud property management system, allowing for the seamless integration with new systems and consolidation of guest and reservation data across all properties. In 2020, they launched a new 'Discover ASR' mobile app for members of its loyalty program, Ascott Star Rewards. With a clear and intuitive user experience, guests can easily manage their reservation, perform self-check in and check out, they can access digital keys to access apartments and receive "go green" notifications to provide guests with the choice to opt out of daily housekeeping, for example.
In order to accompany this digitalisation, Wifirst has isolated each type of network. For example, the guest and staff networks are isolated within a virtual local area network, which means that guest networks can not see the back office network and vice versa. We can introduce further security measures by adding a layer of encryption to any of the networks, and even hide wireless networks altogether, thus ensuring the highest form of security and connectivity is always provided.
Customer satisfaction: N°1 for WiFi
The Ascott benefits from excellent customer feedback, particularly in regards to Chromecast, which is very popular with travellers. The Booking and TripAdvisor ratings are also excellent. This is the reward for the investments made: provide connectivity up to the standard of the Citadines brand.
With Wifirst, we were able to implement several networks on a single infrastructure, guaranteeing security and quality to our guests and staff to all our European properties. The Ascott Group are very forward thinking when it comes to guest technologyand thats where Wifirst really came into its own. Our partnership is wider than the WiFi; we rely on Wifirst’s team for everything related to connectivity. Stéphane Mayere, Information Security Officer & Digital Innovation Director EU
About Wifirst
Wifirst is the European leader in managed WiFi for professionals. The operator deploys and operates high-performance, secure and sustainable "as a service" connectivity solutions. Its know-how and technologies appeal to IT decision-makers from the largest companies and public organizations (AccorHotels, Havas, The French Ministry of the Army, Norauto, The Ascott, etc.) In 2023, Wifirst joins the Next40: a program from the Ministry of Economy which identifies the most promising companies of the french tech ecosystem. Wifirst covers 29 countries and is present in the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and Germany where he has acquired the german operator Hotsplots, specialiser in on-board WiFi solutions. For more information: www.wifirst.co.uk.
About The Ascott Limited
Since pioneering Asia Pacific's first international-class serviced residence with the opening of The Ascott Singapore in 1984, Ascott has grown to be a trusted hospitality company with more than 940 properties globally. Headquartered in Singapore, Ascott's presence extends across more than 220 cities in over 40 countries in Asia Pacific, Central Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the USA.
Ascott's diversified accommodation offerings span serviced residences, co-living properties, hotels and independent senior living apartments, as well as student accommodation and rental housing. Its award-winning hospitality brands include Ascott, Citadines, lyf, Oakwood, Quest, Somerset, The Crest Collection, The Unlimited Collection, Preference, Fox, Harris, POP!, Vertu and Yello; and it has a brand partnership with Domitys. Through Ascott Star Rewards (ASR), Ascott's loyalty programme, members enjoy exclusive privileges and offers at participating properties.
A wholly owned business unit of CapitaLand Investment Limited, Ascott is a leading vertically-integrated lodging operator. Harnessing its extensive network of third-party owners and in-market expertise, Ascott grows fee-related earnings through its hospitality management and investment management capabilities. Ascott also expands its funds under management by growing its sponsored CapitaLand Ascott Trust and private funds.
For more information on Ascott's industry record of 40 years and its sustainability programme, please visit www.discoverasr.com/the-ascott-limited. Connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn.
About CapitaLand Investment Limited
Headquartered and listed in Singapore, CapitaLand Investment Limited (CLI) is a leading global real estate investment manager (REIM) with a strong Asia foothold. As at 30 September 2023, CLI had S$133 billion of real estate assets under management, and S$90 billion of real estate funds under management (FUM) held via six listed real estate investment trusts and business trusts, and more than 30 private vehicles across Asia Pacific, Europe and USA. Its diversified real estate asset classes cover retail, office, lodging, business parks, industrial, logistics and data centres.
CLI aims to scale its FUM and fee-related earnings through fund management, lodging management and its full stack of operating capabilities, and maintain effective capital management. As the investment management arm of CapitaLand Group, CLI has access to the development capabilities of and pipeline investment opportunities from CapitaLand's development arm.
As a responsible company, CLI places sustainability at the core of what it does and has committed to achieve Net Zero carbon emissions for scope 1 and 2 by 2050. CLI contributes to the environmental and social well-being of the communities where it operates, as it delivers long-term economic value to its stakeholders.
Visit http://www.capitalandinvest.com/ for more information.