'Deluxe broadband' tempts hotel business customers

In the cut-throat world of broadband connectivity, suppliers need more than just bandwidth to tempt customers into parting with their cash.

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Swisscom is piloting a premium service in 16 hotels throughout the Netherlands, with the hope of a more widespread rollout in June.

On top of a range of basic connectivity services, guests will be able to pay a little extra for a set of personalised and location-based services to the desktop. These will include offers from the hotel, information about the city and a flight tracker. The flight tracker could turn out to be the most useful, as it flags up a warning if a guest's flight is delayed, allowing them a little longer in the city rather than more time kicking their heels at check-in.

On the personalisation side, the service offers access to a guest's favourite newspaper websites in their own language and in page-layout, rather than web format, so guests can view pages as if they were reading the paper in their lap. On top of this, free landline calls are also part of the deal.

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Swisscom is justifying this service with research that found 60 per cent of business travellers expect high-speed access in their hotel room - and that seven per cent of guests actually use the internet in their hotel room.

Typically, guests who use the internet in their room do so for an hour spread across the day. The research found that in particular, business guests are spending more time in front of the PC than in front of the TV.

The service was launched last week at the Amsterdam Hilton. In a 15-day trial there, 75 per cent of guests who opted for internet connectivity chose the premium rate.

Marije Bekker, Hilton Amsterdam director of business development, said: "The internet is s key to customer satisfaction. It can make or break their experience of their stay now."