Case Study: InterContinental Hotels Group

Raising guest satisfaction scores with mobile printing.

About InterContinental Hotels Group

InterContinental Hotels Group is the umbrella organization that oversees luxury and economy hotel brands such as InterContinental® Hotels & Resorts, Crowne Plaza®, Holiday Inn®, Hotel Indigo® and Candlewood Suites®.

“I picked Ricoh because they came with a much better mobile printing solution than I had envisioned. They live and breathe this stuff.”
Bert Omer
Head of Global Hotel Procurement
IHG

Challenge

Guests of Crowne Plaza hotels, one of the brands of InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG), were increasingly dissatisfied because the chain didn’t offer wireless printing. They had to plug in and use the onsite business centers and walk up to 10 minutes each way to retrieve printed materials.

In response to feedback from online sources and its call center, IHG took action. It began searching for a partner to run a global mobile printing pilot. Because many of the hotels are independent franchises, the pilot was a way to test the waters and show the owners the value.

IHG knew that security concerns would make guests leery of downloading an app from a third-party vendor, so the spotlight was on software, specifically the mobile app. We were one of three suppliers evaluated by IHG. They looked at which solution ran the best, connected easily to the network and consumed the least amount of bandwidth.

Solution

IHG chose us because we could deliver a branded solution and support the hotels with our own people anywhere in the world.

A six-month, four-location pilot included RICOH HotSpot-enabled printers, a HotSpot app and RICOH Smart Integration Solutions, which enables printing as a cloud service. The success of the pilot led to a chain-wide rollout. At each hotel, we install the software and hardware and train employees. The solution, which keeps guest information separate from IHG’s internal network, works like this:

Hotel guests launch the app and send their print jobs from any mobile device to the printer via the cloud.
Guests receive a four-digit code and enter it at a printer to retrieve their materials.
If jobs aren't picked up within 72 hours, the print job is deleted to prevent information from falling into the wrong hands.
Printers are set up on carts so they can be located near conference rooms, enabling guests to pick up materials immediately.

Additionally, our employees provide local support anywhere in the world so IHG can count on having consistent, expert tech support.

Result

Speaker at Business Conference and Presentation.

The rollout is underway for 195 Crowne Plaza hotels, and IHG reports that feedback is positive and use is trending upward. According to IHG’s Bert Omer, “Guests are happy. The devices worked. And Ricoh has supported us exactly the way we wanted.”

Guest satisfaction scores are ticking upward, and IHG expects a big payback from the mobile printing solution in the form of numerous booked conferences that pull in revenue for food and beverage services.

Now we’re talking with IHG about implementing mobile printing in hotel lobbies where guests might print boarding passes, event tickets, special offers on the fly and other documents. And, IHG may be able to use HotSpot-enabled devices for routine printing that doesn’t require strict security protocols.

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