Fairmont Hotels & Resorts has announced the launch of an ambitious e-business strategy designed to deliver the industry`s most customized and personal travel experience.

The creation of a company-wide network infrastructure provides a vehicle for Fairmont to communicate with guests via new technologies while offering enhanced services and reinforcing the brand promise of providing “places in the heart”. The unique strategy will utilize three portals targeting different audiences: an external portal, fairmont.com; an internal portal, myfairmont.com; and an in-hotel portal, thefairmont.net. The e-business initiative is enabled by the hospitality industry`s most advanced network infrastructure, an end-to-end network based on technology from Cisco Systems that connects all 37 properties. Fairmont will utilize the secure network infrastructure to distribute local information on attractions and to help streamline and enhance customer-focused operations as well as administrative operations. Fairmont will also offer guests and employees expanded booking capabilities and destination content empowering the hotels to deliver a customized travel experience.

Two years ago, Fairmont started building an end-to-end Cisco network. The resulting high-capacity backbone allows the company to leverage a unified network strategy, driving guests, employee and supplier applications.

In addition, the network also allows Fairmont to offer high-speed wired and wireless access to the Internet to guests and employees. Fairmont is a member the Cisco Mobile Office program, an initiative that provides mobile business professionals with secure, high-speed network access from locations outside an immediate office, including public facilities like hotels, airports and coffee shops. To date, all Fairmont meeting space and 30 percent of guestrooms offer high-speed Internet access. By early 2002, close to 100 percent of rooms will be outfitted with these online capabilities.

The company`s external site, fairmont.com, has recently expanded booking capabilities by allowing guests not only to book rooms, but also to book select activities offered by the hotels. Dining reservations, tennis, golf and select spa treatments booked online are guaranteed confirmation within 24 hours of an online reservation. The site will also offer destination information through a partnership with 10Best, a company providing virtual information on top local attractions. Hotel specific guest service content can be dynamically managed by each property using Fairmont`s unique decentralized content management capabilities.

An intranet, myfairmont.com, allows employees to communicate more effectively about guest`s needs and travel patterns, ultimately providing enhanced levels of service. It also serves as the conduit through which Fairmont delivers its internal application systems. Over one third of Fairmont`s employees have access to the site at work, which provides guest preference details, hotel information, human resource policies, and sales tools. In addition, employees can share best practices, from innovative marketing campaigns to cost-saving initiatives. The company seeks to install employee kiosks for workers without direct computer access. In terms of usage, myfairmont.com gets over 50,000 hits per day.

The third portal, thefairmont.net, is scheduled to launch on January 1, 2002. The site is accessed by guests within the hotel and delivers rich destination content and other services to guests via a high-speed connection. Guests will be able to retrieve city or resort destination content including restaurants, stores and attractions by logging on to the high speed internet connection in room using their own notebook or a supplied device or through kiosks in select public areas of the hotel. Access to personal profiles will be available for updating guest preferences during a stay. Through links to special sites, guests will be able to order theater tickets, make restaurant reservations, book hotel activities and retrieve detailed maps of local neighborhoods.

Fairmont will continue to grow its relationships with traditional distribution channels, including travel agents, tour operators and meeting planners, but seeks to generate revenue and support Fairmont`s growth initiatives through an E-business strategy. The portals will enhance Fairmont`s ability to market its unique properties, destinations and amenities by enabling guests and employees to interconnect and exchange information.

www.fairmont.com

 

——-