Sleep tight and get the TV right

When ‘no-frills’ is a key part of a hotelier’s positioning, it’s vital to get the rest of it right – especially home comforts like in-room entertainment

As seven million guests would probably agree, the things that really matter at a budget hotel are clean rooms, a comfortable bed, a decent TV and the chance to make yourself a nice cup of tea. As the UK’s fastest growing hotel chain, Travelodge is making hotels accessible to everyone with rooms from£19, throughout its 462 hotels across the UK, Ireland and Spain.

As with budget airlines, the retail-style price checking programmes, online reservations and ‘no-frills’ approach is proving increasingly popular with customers who want a good basic service without having to pay for all the unnecessary bells and whistles.

The consequence for Travelodge is a rapidly growing business with a solid reputation; the group plans to be the biggest hotel operator in London by the 2012 Olympics and by 2020, intends to be operating 70,000 rooms across 1,000 hotels.

One of the factors behind the brand’s success may be that it has a clear and single minded proposition that it sticks to and gets right, time after time. Cups of tea aside, being able to turn on the news or your favourite TV programme after a long day is what really makes guests feel at home and this is something Scott Henderson knows a lot about.

“When the TV is a key part of the room package, if anything goes wrong with it, that means the room is completely off-line until it’s fixed or replaced, and that can make a huge difference in a volume business like this,” says Henderson, project manager at SCS, the TV systems specialist of choice for the Travelodge group.

Henderson is talking about the managed service agreement that his Warrington-based company has had with Travelodge for the past four years. Following a few service hiccups with a previous incumbent, the SCS team of 35 national engineers resolved some of the technical problems on an ad hoc basis but were so successful that SCS was signed up for all of Travelodge’s TV service work.

“We effectively look after all of their TVs and TV systems. We system design and install their cabling works when opening new hotels or refurbishing and upgrading existing sites, and then when they’re all up and running, we maintain, service and replace any of that equipment,” says Henderson.

Competitive tender

Travelodge was using a range of different brands for in-room TVs until about three years ago, about the same time that LCD came of age. This provided the ideal opportunity to do a thorough appraisal of LCD products on the market and SCS was asked to contact all the relevant manufacturers for quotations to provide TVs to the wider Travelodge group. Given this would involve supplying more than 20,000 TVs over a long period; the tender process represented a very significant business opportunity for the supplier.

“Whatever brand of TV the customer wants, we will supply it. Although we are an ‘LG premier partner’ and we would always include prices from LG, we’re not tied to them or any one manufacturer. But in the end, LG won the tender as no one could compete on price combined with the high quality and design.”

The LG commercial hotel TVs – along with their consumer equivalents from the LG stable – are known for their sleek user appeal; LG has been at the cutting edge of consumer electronics for nearly 50 years. With worldwide recall of its ‘Life’s Good’ strapline, LG has long been the aspirational lifestyle choice for TVs, refrigerators, computer solutions and mobiles as well as TVs.

Although price was vital in LG TVs winning the tender – especially given the volume of products involved – it has turned out to to be just one part of the wider LG package, with warranties and service more recently assuming a greater importance.

Indirect sales model

LG also recognises that to operate successfully, it is important to work with reliable teams of resellers and systems integrators – rather than pursuing a direct sales model. Indeed, LG is the only manufacturer to sell only indirectly, through the reseller channel, which it believes provides advantages to all parties, especially the end customer. The trusted resellers can get to know the hoteliers, working directly with them, giving long-term advice and customising solutions to suit their detailed requirements – and help drive their revenue.

New service levels

“LG is good for price, for service and it is recognised as a leading brand. The service today has really got to a new level – if you’d asked me a year ago, if I’m honest, it would be a different story but there’s been a huge turnaround and today, I think I’d have to say that LG has the best service around,” enthuses Henderson.

Part of this service is LG’s robust warranties. In the past, TVs have been sold into the business market with consumer warranties rather than tailored business warranties. Also, the standard solution in the past has been to send off TVs for repair, often not being returned for weeks. And in many instances, the warranties have only been for one year.

“The standard LG hotel set today comes with a two year warranty, although the Travelodge TV is actually a monitor product with a TV tuner and comes with a three year warranty but it also has all the hotel mode features, such as pre-set tuning, volume constraints and facilities that prevent guests from plugging in their own equipment.”

Gradual transition

Because the TV upgrade throughout the Travelodge group is a gradual process, taking place as refurbishments and new builds are scheduled, there are still plenty of old style bulky TVs in use. “We’re on the third generation TV now – we started with 20”, went to 22” and we’re now on the 23” products. Then the bar/café requirements are different again – usually requiring 32” and 42” models – some of the larger hotels even use 60” but it’s all down to the individual bar/café and the area they’re trying to cover with it,” says Henderson.

Travelodge is delighted with the managed solution being provided. The TV pool SCS manages as part of the service contract means that the hotel group is never left with rooms off-line. And after another competitive “beauty parade”, which demonstrated yet again the innovation and service levels from both SCS and LG, Travelodge has successfully renewed its contract with them for a further three years.

“Not only does the SCS service continue to exceed our expectations, so do the LG products they supply” says Scott Rutherford, head of facilities at Travelodge.