Neos iTV at The Lanesborough

The Lanesborough hotel is arguably London's most luxurious; it has a butler where standard hotels offer only room service. It also demonstrates a wealth of examples of the good application of IT that can be emulated by any hotel, large or small. .

Where good service is of the essence, staff have to be in immediate contact with each other, no matter where on the premises they may be. The Lanesborough found that a system of pocket bleeper pagers could be made more efficient and have now equipped staff with DECT cordless phones (not simply as cordless phones from extensions, but operating from the Ascom telephone system). These phones give key staff full two-way voice and screened text messages anywhere on the premises.

To avoid the annoyance of a call interrupting a conversation with a guest, all the Lanesborough staff phones can vibrate rather than ring; a feature which staff have permanently switched on.

Similar cordless phones or mobile phones are offered to guests on arrival, or made available in their rooms. Their cordless DECT models are simplified versions of the staff ones, and look like small mobile phones. Even guests unfamiliar with cordless or mobile phones have no trouble using them.

The DECT phones free them from the phone cord and they can use them to make outgoing calls and receive incoming ones, dialled directly to the phone so they remain in contact even if they are out of their room. The mobile phones mean they can remain in touch no matter if they are in their room, lunching in Harrods or shopping in Paris. The hotel can also put calls through to them from the switchboard.

For in-room services Lanesborough installed Category 5 computer cabling some time ago to all bedrooms. There, guests have a hotel-provided in-room computer with email and Internet access, plus a fax machine. Printers were recently due to have been installed in all rooms. Business guests particularly appreciate this because they can work in greater comfort than their own notebook PC allows, and few business people carry fax machines and printers around with them.

To complete the working-away service, guests are given on arrival personalized business cards and stationery bearing the direct phone and fax line numbers for that guest. When he or she departs, these numbers are changed so that no calls go through for them after they have left. Rather, they are diverted automatically to a receptionist who explains the situation and, if necessary, forwards messages to the destination the guest left with them.

What does the system do? - In the first instance, the system works as a TV, either on a Loewe 28" set or on a 42" NEC plasma.

The Lanesborough will not mind our pointing out that business cards and personalized letterheads are not expensive to print in small quantities and the cost is far outweighed by the appreciation guests express for the service.

On the entertainment side, the bedrooms have a music system and digital TV with films on demand. This uses the same screen as the computer: a 21-inch flat screen that looks like a TV for familiarity's sake but is really a remotely-controlled computer with Microsoft Office software and a DVD player. The guest has a choice of a TV-style remote or a full QWERTY wireless keyboard, according to their abilities and inclinations.

The system, from Neos, has a comprehensive digital library of films that is continuously updated. Guests can request their choice of film at any time they want and have complete control over it; to pause it, replay their favourite bits, and so on. There is also the more usual access to terrestrial, cable and satellite TV channels and world-wide radio channels.

Geoffrey Gelardi, Lanesborough's managing director, provides proof that business guests (as well as tourists) really do appreciate such facilities: 'On average some 45% of guests have accessed the Internet using these systems.'