In this day and age, the importance of having high quality IT support for your hotel cannot be stressed enough. A hotel relies almost completely on technology, and in a business where the top priority is customer satisfaction, any glitch which could lead to unhappy customers and negative reviews is obviously something you want to avoid. Therefore, choosing an IT support company requires careful thought and consideration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here are some questions that you should be asking in order to ensure that your hotel\u2019s IT infrastructure will be protected and maintained adequately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Your IT support holds a huge amount of responsibility for\nyour business; now is not a good time to gamble by relying on a start-up\ncompany. You want to ensure that the company you choose is established and has\nexperience. The last thing you want to hear is that they\u2019ve never dealt with a\nproblem you\u2019re experiencing and don\u2019t know where to start to resolve it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Asking what a company\u2019s typical client looks like ensures that they have experience in your field and are appropriate for you. For example, if your business is a hotel, it would be deeply disconcerting if your IT support company had no other clients in the hospitality field. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Similarly, it is important to select a support company that has the capacity to support you. If you\u2019re a 400-room hotel, it is unlikely that a one-man tech support company is appropriate for you. Similarly, if you are a 10 room Bed & Breakfast hotel, it is unlikely that you\u2019ll benefit from a large company that deals with big brand hotel chains. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many IT companies offer different levels of support. These\nwill come at different costs and can include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SLA metrics are really useful for helping you gauge how\neffective a company is. These will include metrics such as response time and\ntime to resolution and will help you understand what you can expect of your Hotel\nIT Support Provider. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hotels need 24\/7 IT Support<\/strong><\/a> and 24\/7 Network Monitoring<\/strong><\/a>: As a 24\/7 business, you need to know that you can call your support company if your system goes down after business hours. The last thing you want is for your hotel WiFi<\/strong><\/a> to go down at 6am on a Sunday morning and then have to wait until Monday for a resolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Following on, when something does go wrong, you need to know what your options are in terms of how to contact your hotel IT Support partner. Are you able to call them? Can you log a ticket online? What is their preferred method of contact and does this work for you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nAlthough\nit might be unreasonable to expect to speak to the same engineer every time you\ncall, you should be comfortable in the knowledge that the engineers you speak\nto are part of the same team. They should have the same level of familiarity\nwith your business. You don\u2019t want to have to explain the basics, who you are\nand what your business is, every time you pick up the phone.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Having a single point in the company to contact when you\nhave questions, concerns or even compliments is a good way of building a\nlasting relationship with your IT Support provider. They will be your main\npoint of contact and will get to know and understand your business and plans\nand will be able to ensure that you are accommodated and catered for. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Most IT support companies will have contracts that tie you in for a specific period of time. If you are unhappy with their service this could be problematic, so it\u2019s definitely worth asking about. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many IT Support businesses will charge you extra for covering peripheral items such as mobile phones and printers, so it is important to ensure coverage if these are pivotal to your business. Additionally, although labour and travel are usually covered, custom software may not be. <\/p>\n\n\n\n As important as it is to ask what your IT Support contract covers, you must also take the time to ask specifically what is not covered. This will disclose to you the extras that you may be charged for which may not have been revealed had you not asked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This may come under point eleven above, but you really do\nneed to know whether hardware is included in your hotel IT support contract. As\ntime goes on, technology develops and old hardware needs to be replaced. If not\nincluded in your contract, this can become a costly addition and expense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n To ensure that you receive the best, most up-to-date support, reputable IT support providers will be trusted partners of companies such as Microsoft, Apple and HP. Even more important in a hotel environment is whether your IT support partner has relationships with leading hospitality technology vendors, such as your PMS vendo<\/a><\/strong>r<\/strong><\/a>, telecoms vendor<\/strong><\/a> etc. They should also be up to date on compliancy regulations specific to the hotel industry, such as PCI<\/strong><\/a> and GDPR<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, one of the most effective ways of gauging a company\u2019s effectiveness is to ask their current and former clients how satisfied they are with the service. This can be done through online research of unbiased reviews. Additionally, many IT companies will also have client testimonials and case studies<\/strong><\/a> on their website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cardonet have been working with hotels<\/strong><\/a> for the past twenty years to help them overcome their technological challenges. We have engineering bases in the United Kingdom, Europe and Southern California and our group of highly experienced engineers are available 24\/7 to assist and ensure that your hotel\u2019s IT infrastructure is running seamlessly. We would be happy to answer these 15 questions to ensure that you get the best IT Support service for your hotel<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are spending too much time dealing with hotel technology issues and if those issues are affecting your guest experience, call us on <\/strong>+44 203 034 2244<\/strong><\/a> or <\/strong>+1 323 984 8908<\/strong><\/a>. Alternately, you can <\/strong>contact us online<\/strong><\/a>. We will be happy to help you overcome your hotel IT challenges so that you can improve your guest experience and set your hotel apart.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In this day and age, the importance of having high quality IT support for your hotel cannot be stressed enough. A hotel relies almost completely on technology, and in a business where the top priority is customer satisfaction, any glitch which could lead to unhappy customers and negative reviews is obviously something you want to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[517],"tags":[604,554,605,553],"class_list":["post-3395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-it-support","tag-hotel-it-services","tag-hotel-it-solutions","tag-hotel-it-support","tag-hotel-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n7. Contact Methods<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
8. Dedicated Engineer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
9. Dedicated Account Manager<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
10. Contract Commitment <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
11. What Your Contract Covers<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
12. What is Not Covered<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
13. Hardware<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
14. IT Partnerships<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
15. Testimonials<\/h3>\n\n\n\n