Date published: 01.09.08 - not release date

New Good Hotel Guide Slams Wi-Fi Rates In UK Hotels - But now some leading hotels are providing a free alternative

Good Hotel Guide Slams Wi-Fi Rates In UK Hotels - But now some leading hotels are providing a free alternative

you may have read recently that the good hotel guide 2007 has criticised uk hotels for charging high rates to allow guests to get online, or aren't transparent about the pricing for the service. You can read more here:

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/communications/wireless/0,39020348,3...

however, corporate wi-fi specialists airangel provides a very different wi-fi service for hotels - and big players such as Radisson SAS, Hotel Du Vin, Park Inn and Malmaison are now adopting a free, content rich and bespoke wi-fi offering for guests - and using it as a highly effective marketing tool. So, there's an alternative to the 'rip-off' pay as you go model and airangel is the leading uk tech company delivering it. More details below - and go here http://www.airangel.co.uk/radissonsas/v3 for a demo of how some hotels are now utilising wi-fi beyond just sharing revenue with a third party operator.

Interviews & more info? call Chris Price or Richard Bond at skv pr on 0161 236 9909

Press Release

Airangel Takes Off With Hotel Sector
More Radisson SAS and Park Inn Hotels Join Malmaison & Hotel Du Vin In Using airangel Wi-Fi Networks

airangel, the Warrington based wi-fi and digital content specialists, have just announced that more leading hotels are to adopt its unique ‘walled garden' wi-fi networks and branded, content rich portals. Radisson SAS hotels in Belfast and Stansted, together with The Park Inn, Heathrow, will join airangel's existing live networks already installed at the Radisson SAS in Glasgow, nine Malmaison hotels and seven of Malmaison's Hotel Du Vin subsidiary chain.

Beyond just offering users with wi-fi enabled devices access to the net via a standard wireless network, the airangel branded gateway offers genuine added value to hotel customers, whilst also giving the hotel itself the opportunity to get much closer to its guests and communicate to them in a highly targeted and strategic way. Further, most airangel hotel networks do not operate on the traditional pay as you go (PAYG) shared revenue model – they are often free or a reasonable rate for guests to use once they have collected a special branded guest voucher when they check-in.

However, once a guest has logged on they are automatically directed to a dedicated hotel ‘home page' that acts as a gateway to the web. But the hotel's home page is more than just a passive ‘skin' that sits over a web-browser – it is a fully interactive, content driven portal that delivers hotel customers a raft of local information, services and genuinely useful information that would be impossible to communicate in a traditional hotel welcome pack or via hotel teletext.

For example, at the Radisson SAS in Glasgow guests are given access to not only updated details of the hotel's own restaurant menus, but also recommended bars and restaurants near by that are personally selected by the General Manager, with the understanding that guests may want to venture further a field. The gateway also contains news and information regarding all other hotel facilities and services – from a timetable of classes in the health club to the full specifications of all meeting and conference rooms. This highly personalised, detailed and easily accessible content is complimented by tourist information, hotel special offers and a host of other useful information that can be updated by the hotel in an instant.

Of course, if guests simply want to get online they can easily click through to a web browser like internet explorer- but airangel have found that once guests experience the friendly hotel interface most actively explore it and interactive with.

Commenting on the airangel network live at the Radisson SAS in Glasgow, General Manager Philip Mahoney said: "Since last year all Radisson SAS hotels have offered free wi-fi for guests, but since we have had the airangel portal up and running I've been genuinely amazed how may guests have commented on it positively. Not only is it free for guests to use, which in itself is unusual, it also delivers a high level of detailed and useful information that our customers really respond to. With regard to both business and leisure guests, it has proved a great marketing platform for our business development and loyalty campaigns, offered a real selling point in a highly competitive city centre market and overall is an invaluable communications tool for the hotel."

Daniel Lister, airangel's Commercial Director, added: "Our content rich approach, combined with in some cases free, yet controlled customer access is set to be a real threat to the simple ‘pay to surf' hotspot models currently operating in many hotels and other public spaces. This deal also reflects how some of the hotel sector is seriously utilising the creative marketing opportunities offered by broadband, far beyond just giving their customers access to the web."

All of airangel's hotel networks are developed and maintained remotely by airangel's team of designers, programmers and web-masters. The secure wi-fi networks themselves have been developed in partnership with Nomadix, a leading global supplier of public access wi-fi gateways and services. Based in California, Nomadix specialise in developing "zero user configuration" solutions for public access hotspots. This ensures that all users connect to an airangel network instantly -- regardless of their mobile device's wireless configuration or pre-installed hotspot ‘sniffer' software. For more info visit www.airangel.co.uk.


Demonstration Portal:

www.airangel.co.uk/radissonsas/v3

For more info, case studies, screen-grabs, an online demonstration or interview requests please contact: Richard Bond or Richard Hector-Jones at Spinoza Kennedy Vesey PR on 0161 236 9909. e-mail: richard.bond @skvpr.co.uk

Notes To Editors:

About airangel

airangel was established in 2001 as a spin-out from Claremont Group Interiors, one of UK's leading suppliers of commercial interior solutions. Already very well established in the hotel and corporate office market, Claremont Group Interiors developed airangel as a virtual extension of its interiors business, applying its experience in delivering intelligent, customer-led design to new digital platforms. For more info visit www.airangel.co.uk and www.claremontgi.com

About Radisson SAS & Park Inn Hotels

Radisson SAS is the 1st international hotel chain to offer Free Broadband-as part of its E@syConnect service concept-across hotels in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Visit: www.rezidorsas.com

About Nomadix

Nomadix is the leading provider of intelligent network devices and interconnect services that make nomadic computing easy. The company offers the Nomadix Service Engine™ (NSE), which allows the public access service operators and venue owners to deploy a cost effective, secure and easy to use high-speed internet access offering.

The company is headquartered in Newbury Park, California, and sells and supports its products and services globally through licensing and OEM partnerships, Value Added Resellers and Systems Integrators. F

or additional information, please visit www.nomadix.com