Amedia, a young and expanding hotel brand in Germany, Austria and Central Europe, has selected Swisscom Hospitality to implement and service its complete guest technology offering. High-speed Internet access, voice over IP, interactive TV and video-on-demand services as well as digital signage are all delivered over a converged network built and managed by Swisscom. Amedia benefits from a carrier-grade telephony service at all properties without the need to buy or install PBX equipment, thanks to Swisscom’s remotely hosted voice offering.
The Amedia brand is built around the notion of serving its guests through "A" level media services. In fact, the group offers wireless high-speed Internet access, voice calls, live television and guest room entertainment services in all properties free to the guest. Founded in 2008, the group currently operates 13 hotels in Germany, Austria and Czech Republic and plans to expand its footprint to 18 properties by 2015.
"Swisscom was the only provider that was able to offer us a true triple-play play solution one-stop," says Udo Chistee, main shareholder and managing director of Amedia Hotels. "Working with a single provider clearly makes life easier for us. However, we have chosen Swisscom also for their managed networks capabilities, which are essential to assure an optimal service quality. I am convinced that ultimately, a free, high-quality guest technology offering will justify a premium on our room rate of 5 to 10 euros per night. Corporate guests in particular will appreciate our concept knowing that they can use the Internet, call family and friends and get good entertainment without having to think about their expenses."
The first Amedia property completely deployed and serviced by Swisscom is the new Amedia Hotel Berlin, centrally located on the city’s Kurfürstendamm. The TV guest offering includes 40 live-TV channels, 60 live-radio channels from all over Europe and 50 videos, most of them available in multiple languages and in HD quality. Hotel staff can update its service page on the TV menu and push out guest messages in real-time through Swisscom’s hotel content management system.
"Our proven guest technology offers Amedia a number of important cost advantages," says Markus Hiebeler, sales director Germany and Austria for Swisscom Hospitality Services. "Delivered through a remotely hosted PBX, our voice solution reduces hardware and thus capital expenditure to a minimum. Another case in point, our interactive TV solution works perfectly well on all distribution networks without a set-top box, which translates into more cost savings. Finally, we can offer Amedia professional managed services at an attractive price point, thanks to the scale of hotel network operations in Europe and worldwide."
He adds: "It is an honour for us to be main driver of Amedia’s innovation in the service technology space and we will do everything to let Amedia’s guests benefit from our continuous service innovation and thus maintain their competitive edge."
Following the successful Berlin installation, Swisscom is going to upgrade and deploy the technical infrastructure of 11 more Amedia hotels across Germany and Austria, totalling 1,200 guest rooms.