In 2004, Swisscom Eurospot strengthened its market presence, and extended its room coverage to 170,000. Moreover, it extended its service portfolio into providing customised conference and meeting services as well as self-service workstations with high-speed connectivity and printing facilities for guests and clients of its partner hotels. Today Swisscom Eurospot has connected more than 170,000 guestrooms and enabled more than 2,000 properties in 12 European countries with secure high-speed Internet access. This is almost triple the number which the company recorded one year ago. The company has also partnered with another 750 hotels, which will become online in the coming months.
This market growth can be attributed to two key factors which have evolved over the past year: business people have become increasingly familiar with WLAN technology outside the office, resulting in an increased market penetration and widespread proliferation of wireless-enabled laptops. Secondly, laptop prices have decreased. As a result, business people travel more and more with their laptops in order to significantly improve their productivity when on the move.
Following its commitment to bringing innovative services to guests and clients of the hospitality industry, Swisscom Eurospot extended its service portfolio in 2004, with the introduction of the following new products:
* Customised meeting and conference services with solutions ranging from single-user high-speed Internet access to fully comprehensive solutions providing access for several thousands of conference attendees
* High-speed connections in hotel guestrooms from check-in to check-out
* Self-service PC workstations available for hotel guests who do not carry a laptop. At these workstations, usually located in the business centre or lobby area, hotel guests can send and receive e-mails, access their corporate network securely and browse the internet at high-speed
* The latest product introduction, digital signage systems, allows hotels to display electronically any kind of information to their guests and conference attendees such as news, whether forecast, welcome messages, meeting schedules and management of meeting rooms and conference programmes, controlled by an easy to operate web interface
In its second year of existence, Swisscom Eurospot was able to strengthen its market presence in Southern Europe and to increase through organic growth as well as through acquisitions. Some of the year’s highlights have been:
* the opening of an office in Lisbon, in addition to the company’s Southern offices in Barcelona and Milano
* partnership deals which were closed with premium hotels and hotel chains in Southern Europe, as for example with AC Palácio, Meridien Porto and Lisbon, Sheraton Lisbon, and Crowne Plaza Madeira Hotel in Portugal and Zacchera Hotels, Grand Hotel Rimini, Rome Cavalieri Hilton, Sheraton Bologna and Firenze in Italy. Part of the expansion in Southern Europe has also been achieved through Swisscom Eurospot’s partnership extension with nH hoteles Swisscom Eurospot is now providing its connectivity services to the complete nH chain in Europe.
Frédéric Gastaldo, CEO of Swisscom Eurospot says: "We aim to provide a complete portfolio of secure and high-quality services to our hotel partners and ensure improved quality consistently in order to progressively meet our hotel partners’ and ultimately their guests’ and clients’ expectations."
Swisscom Eurospot is exhibiting from 11-15 March 2005 at ITB in Berlin (Hall 10.1, stand 106) and at IMEX in Frankfurt from 19-21 April 2005 (Hall 8, stand F 530).
About Swisscom Eurospot
Swisscom Eurospot is a leading pan-European provider of high-speed Internet access and conference services to guests and clients of the hospitality industry. The company's network spans more than 2'750 properties in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the UK. Connectivity services are available in well-known hotel chains such as Hilton, Holiday Inn, nH Hoteles, Kempinski and Bilderberg. Swisscom Eurospot offers its partner locations a comprehensive range of high-speed Internet access and conference services, providing each property with a turn-key solution covering design, installation and operation that is tailored to its specific quality and service requirements. Further information on Swisscom Eurospot, its product portfolio and the geographic location of the over 2'000 'live' Swisscom Eurospot partner properties can be found at www.swisscom-eurospot.com
Headquartered in Geneva, Swisscom Eurospot is a subsidiary of the Swisscom Group and has offices in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and the United Kingdom.
For further information please contact:
Rebecca Dean
01625 500800
rdean@insightmkt.com