InterContinental Sydney: The fast way into your guest’s heart
InterContinental Sydney is renowned for being one of the city’s finest luxury hotels but now it is also known as one of the city’s most advanced technology hotspots for both business and leisure guests.
This is thanks to the completion of a high speed Internet access project by Asia Pacific’s solution specialists, McLaren Technologies.
The InterContinental Sydney certainly has a lot to offer. It is located in a stunning position, overlooking the world famous Sydney Harbour and has an amazing history; sitting on the historical site where the very first Australian grape vine was planted. It is proudly built around the treasury building of 1851, where past premiers of New South Wales have resided.
This prestigious hotel offers its guest’s: contemporary suites, wonderful views, some of the finest dining experiences in Sydney, a heated indoor pool and conference facilities. It is located just a moments walk from the famous Opera House, Royal Botanic Gardens, Harbour Bridge, The Rocks and the ferries from Circular Quay and, being in such close proximity to the city, it makes a fantastic accommodation choice for both corporate and leisure visitors. One of the hotel’s most famous features – besides its superior technology – is its inimitable Club InterContinental, an exclusive lounge located on the spectacular rooftop of the hotel.
Recently there has been an incredible worldwide surge in the expectation for acommodation providers to provide high-speed Internet access. With the mass use of smart technology and guests commonly travelling with laptops, IPods, smart phones and tablets, accommodation providers are under immense pressure to provide easy access to high-speed Internet.
InterContinental Sydney quickly recognised this and the growing need for them to be ahead of the technological pack within the accommodation industry and in order to meet these challenges they commissioned McLaren Technologies to oversee the implementation of a new technology framework that complements and builds on the hotel’s existing top end Nomadix and data systems.
McLaren Technologies is known for delivering a range of best of breed technology solutions and services to a diverse range of industries, including the hospitality industry.
The company is one of the Asia Pacific’s leading providers of cloud based technology solutions for hotels, resorts and visitor-based environments. Its customers span the world’s leading hotel companies including InterContinental Hotels Group, Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Hilton Worldwide, Accor Hospitality, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Peninsula Hotels and Resorts, Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, Sands Hotels and Hyatt Hotels and Resorts.
Supporting customers across the Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, McLaren Support features a highly skilled team of engineers and product specialists.
Overseeing this project at InterContinental Sydney was the managing director of the company Matthew White, who explains that the result of this project is a selection of flexible billing options – for both wired and wireless Internet access – to best cater to the needs of InterContinental’s individual guests.
“Our team of software developers created a tailored software solution specific to InterContinental Sydney to suit its particular business and client preferences – both in-room and in public areas,” said Mr White. “As one of Australia’s leading luxury hotels, InterContinental Sydney caters to all manner of guests with differing online needs and our priority was to ensure that the hotel’s Internet billing options truly reflect that diversity while remaining simple and easy to use.”
InterContinental Sydney’s director of information technology Ben Wrigley confirms that that McLaren Technologies understood and delivered the hotel’s vision to provide flexibility with regards to connectivity access. “McLaren’s customised approach to our technology infrastructure has allowed for several new billing options to be presented to guests,” said Mr Wrigley. “Clients now have the option to log on as a new guest connecting for the first time, an existing guest either in-room or as part of a hot spot plan, or as part of a group account – ideal for those visiting as part of a larger event or conference. These billing options are complimented by presentations relating to the hotel’s facilities that can be selected by guests depending on their individual needs.”
The components installed at InterContinental Sydney included two Nomadix AG5600 in High Availability, a Cisco network and two of McLaren’s own home-grown solutions – the Hotspot Manager Server and the McLaren HSIA Guest Portal. HotSpot Manager is a McLaren technology that integrates with Nomadix Internet Gateways to enable the straightforward and immediate set up of random and user selected wireless profiles. Nomadix (a subsidiary of DOCOMO Intertouch) provides clever Internet solutions for the hospitality and public access market. A real-time operating system, Nomadix is an innovator in public access network solutions incorporating over 15 unique areas of functionality needed to successfully deploy a wi-fi service offering for clients.
The new technology caters for the variety of guests staying at InterContinental Sydney and, indeed, their very varied technological needs. It offers much wider access options and easier connectivity to wi-fi, with specific mobile device login pages and portals that are cross browser and cross device compatible. The system also provides much faster Internet speeds and more billing options for guest’s ultimate convenience. The solution includes support for IHG Rewards Club by recognising members and their level; new guests are required to enter their last name and room number as entered in the property management system. The interface will then perform a look-up query to confirm validity. If the IHG Rewards Club member level is confirmed as: Platinum Elite or Gold Elite then the member will receive free Internet access. The solution also caters for cash only guests where a no post flag is set in the reservation. This allows the hotel to restrict access as required.
With this system installed both leisure and business visitors should have all their technological needs entirely satisfied, thus ensuring that the InterContinental Sydney is meeting the growing technological expectations of its guests.
This project should help cement InterContinental Sydney’s reputation as being, not only one of the finest hotels in Sydney but also one of the most technologically advanced.
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