Southern Sun Hotels Group is making high-speed Internet access a standard feature in all its hotels in SA.
The High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) strategy will see HSIA installed at all 40 hotels in SA this year, with an offering tailored to each market segment - from economy to luxury.
"Today`s rapid pace demands that people stay in contact and up to date with the business world. As such, we regard HSIA as a standard service that hotels must be able to offer to travellers," says Helder Pereira, MD of Southern Sun Hotels.
Pereira says the roll-out programme will ensure each hotel has a tailored offering for its guests at affordable rates; whether connectivity is via wireless hotspots in hotel public areas, fixed and wireless high-speed access in hotel rooms, business centres or through using self-service workstations for guests travelling without notebook computers.
"What becomes even more interesting though, is the possibility of delivering 'on-demand` movie and entertainment content to hotel guests via this infrastructure in the future. We are already working on further enhancing the guest experience as a result of technology developments," says Pereira.
"We have chosen Telkom as our partner because quality HSIA and broadband interactive services are key components of their future strategy. Also because the Telkom-Wireless G partnership is leading the South African broadband industry with a world-class mobile service, offering guests global roaming," says Sandi Macfie, IT director at Southern Sun Hotels.
By the end of this year all Southern Sun hotels across SA will offer wireless hotspots in all public areas, following the initial successful installation in 20 hotels, which are already offering this form of Internet connection.
In addition, selected hotels will offer wireless connectivity throughout the entire hotel, together with wired and wireless high-speed connectivity in guest rooms. This is already available at the Holiday Inn Garden Court Pretoria Hatfield and is being implemented at InterContinental Palazzo in Fourways, The Cullinan Hotel in Cape Town and Holiday Inn Garden Court Johannesburg Sandton City.
The group says initial statistics show high levels of demand for HSIA and many guests are using the existing hotspots.
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