Hotel Palace Berlin entrusts Swisscom with network renovation and delivery of state of the art IP-convergent guest services

Hotel Palace Berlin, Germany, a member of the Leading Hotels of the World, has selected Swisscom to install an integrated wired and wireless network infrastructure throughout its property. The brand-new CAT-7 network will allow the hotel to offer Swisscom’s convergent guest services, including IPTV and guest room entertainment, seamless Internet access in all hotel areas, its Business Center Solution and managed services for the hotel’s conference area.

5-star Hotel Palace is one of Berlin’s most prestigious business venues. Located in the centre of the city between the Memorial Church, Kurfürstendamm and the KaDeWe department store, Hotel Palace provides its guests with outstanding service of unique quality and highest security standards. Beyond its 282 luxurious suites and guest rooms; the privately owned hotel is renowned for its spa, the gourmet restaurant “first floor” and its spacious meeting facilities featuring modern audiovisual equipment.

“Our service philosophy is focused on personalization and utmost flexibility for the individual guest. To stay on the leading edge of service, it is obvious that we need to make most intelligent use of modern technology”, says Kurt Lehrke, General Manager at the Palace Hotel. “Swisscom has helped us to explore our options and submitted a proposal that fully reflected our requirements. I am pleased that Swisscom is not only building our next-generation hotel network but also going to deliver some of the most advanced guest services available on the market today.”

Starting its cooperation with Swisscom in 2003, Hotel Palace was among the Berlin’s first hotels offering seamless WiFi connectivity across all hotel areas. The continuing demand for ever more bandwidth, more powerful conference networks and a modern IPTV solution have all contributed to the hotel’s decision to invest in a new network infrastructure. Expected to conclude in November 2009, the network renovation will allow the hotel to propose its guests dynamic bandwidth, a range of extra services from Wireless Remote Printing to free newspaper downloads and an exclusive HD TV viewing experience.

“I am very pleased that Palace Hotel has decided to take our partnership to the next level”, says Leo Brand, CEO of Swisscom Hospitality Services. “As its preferred technology provider, we will do everything to live up to the hotel’s reputation and assist in further refining its personalized guest services. At the same time, we will drive cost efficiencies for the Palace Hotel: Formerly separate solutions like guest room entertainment, Internet access and conference services will be provided from one source and delivered through one set of cables that we, Swisscom, provide and manage. The advantage for the hotel is clear: One interface, lean and flexible structures and a fully customized set of services tailored to the needs of Palace Hotel”.

About Swisscom Hospitality Services

Hospitality Services Plus Ltd, a fully-owned subsidiary of Swisscom (Switzerland) Ltd, is a leader in converged technology solutions for the global hospitality industry. The company provides IP-based communication and entertainment solutions designed to meet the unique requirements of the world’s finest hotels. Since 2003, the company has established a high-speed broadband network in more than 2,000 partner hotels in 18 European countries and the United States, encompassing some 223,000 hotel rooms. Moreover, the company provides customized network solutions at more than 10,000 meetings and events every year.

www.swisscom.com/hospitality