OKKO Hotels, a new hotel chain in France, has selected Swisscom Hospitality as its IP networks and applications partner. Swisscom has been commissioned to deliver the hotel networks as well as the three core guest-facing applications, namely high-speed internet, connected hotel TV and voice services chain-wide. Through its wireless networks, Swisscom also supports a host of additional guest-facing and back-of-house applications. The first OKKO Hotel has now successfully gone live in Nantes, France; two more openings are planned for this year in Grenoble and Lyon.
OKKO Hotels, created by Olivier Devys (a former manager at Accor Group) with the support of Paul Dubrule (co-founder of Accor Group), offer business travellers an enhanced value proposition in the four-star segment by focusing on convenient city center locations, modern guest comforts and the innovative use of technology.
The recently opened OKKO Hotel Nantes offers hotel guests free, high-speed internet access in all hotel areas, a credit of €10 for IP voice calls and a premium TV experience with interactive menu options and free videos on demand.
Moreover, the Swisscom designed and managed Wi-Fi network enables the implementation of OKKO Hotels’ ‘digital guest journey’; when entering the hotel, the guest receives a mobile key on their smart phone, which was registered during reservation, allowing the guest to go straight to their room without stopping at the front-desk and without filling in any paperwork.
Yet guests aren’t the only beneficiaries of the Swisscom IP network. Upon check-out, OKKO Hotels’ housekeeping staff receives the room assignment on their tablet devices, loaded with a housekeeping application and mobile telephony client that enables them to service the room and report back to the front-desk with consummate ease.
OKKO Hotels co-founder and president Olivier Devys said: "A solid, robust wireless access is a key requirement for our guests and one of the moments of truth where they expect an excellent service from us."
"At the same time, as an increasing number of new services and hotel devices embrace IP as the preferred method of connectivity and management, the Swisscom IP network fulfils a much broader role. It really is at the heart of our hotel concept, and it must be outstandingly robust, reliable and secure at all times."
Swisscom Hospitality Services sales and operations director Françoise Daléry said: "We are extremely proud to be OKKO Hotels’ selected technology partner."
"Our collaboration started more than a year ago and today it illustrates what an advanced, managed wireless LAN can do for guests and hoteliers alike."
Swisscom supports OKKO Hotels day-to-day through a dedicated service manager based in France, as well as through its 24/7 customer care and network operations centre in Lisbon, Portugal. A stringent service level agreement regime ensures that both client and guest expectations are permanently met. As a symbol of its pro-active client management, Swisscom has put in place a Hotelier Dashboard that reports on the actual network status in real-time, as well as on the fulfillment of all mutually agreed key performance indicators.