WeB way: The Sonnet at Bistupur

Jamshedpur, Nov. 2: Hotels in the steel city are gearing up to meet the demands of their international customers by introducing hi-tech methods.

A few hotels have already taken the lead by introducing wi-fi connectivity through optical fibre network.

Tata Tele Services Ltd has completed installation of the system in four hotels in the city — Hotel South Park (Bistupur), Ganga Regency (Sakchi), The Sonnet (Bistupur) and Ginger Hotel (Bistupur). Initially, only Fortune Hotel Centre Point had wi-fi connectivity.

“Technology is the demand of the present times. There has been a considerable increase in the number of corporate customers — both international and domestic — who need continuous online connection. A few hotels have already started the system to make it convenient for their guests,” said Prabhakar Singh, the president of Jamshedpur Hoteliers’ Association (JHA).

The hotels had to invest around Rs 3 to 5 lakh to set up the connectivity. Singh said that the initiative could have been taken earlier but hoteliers in the city wanted to see the return on their investments.

Finally, an increase in customers from the corporate sector compelled hoteliers to think about adopting the latest in technology.

“You have to work according to your customers. As an industrial city we cannot lag behind. So, we have also got the wi-fi connectivity done in our hotel,” said Rajiv Walia, the general manager of Fortune Hotel Centre Point.

A Tata Tele Services Ltd official confirmed that even the finest hotels in the city did not have a video-conferencing system unlike other cities. This was the reason why seminar and conferences through hi-tech methods have never been possible in the city.

However, the four hotels will be able to have video conferencing system very soon. Also, a number of other hotels are also planning to implement the same technology to gain customer satisfaction.

Depending on the use and number of customers, hotels have fixed their bandwidth (the rate of data transfer).