The Client

A leading resort destination in Vail, Colorado, Vail Marriot is located at the base of Vail Mountain and only 150 yards from the Eagle-Bahn Gondola.  Vail Marriott provides a year round destination for sports enthusiasts as well as those just looking to relax in the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.   The hotel features 283 guest rooms, 61 suites and 14 meeting rooms with over 21,000 sq. ft of indoor and outdoor meeting space including a Grand Ballroom which accommodates up to 1000 people.   This meeting space, the largest in Vail, is supported by a full range of business services including dedicated event planners.   Expanding their convention business is vital to future success for Vail Marriott and upgrading the wireless capability in the meeting rooms and other common areas was identified as a key component to that effort.

The Challenge

A crucial element of the Vail Marriott Mountain Resort & Spa (Vail Marriott) value proposition for both retail and business customers is high speed Internet access.   Vail Marriott actively markets a low cost flat fee daily package which includes high speed Internet access as well as unlimited local and long distance telephone calls.  Given the ever growing customer demand for Internet access and bandwidth coupled with the accelerating rate of technological changes, it is no small task to stay on top of this.   Recently Vail Marriott undertook a project to upgrade and extend its wireless infrastructure--and a key challenge was to do this cost effectively while minimizing disruption to its business.   In the current economic climate, any negative impact on Vail Marriott’s value proposition or room occupancy rate was unacceptable.

Why THG?

TOS Hospitality Group (THG) was chosen as the implementation partner for Vail Marriott’s upgrade project because of its proven expertise in the design, implementation and support of wireless solutions for the hospitality industry.   THG currently provides high quality 24/7 support to more than 75 hotels and over 10,000 hotel rooms around the country.  Providing more than just exceptional customer and technical support, THG also delivers both wired and wireless infrastructure installations and upgrades making us a true “Solution Provider”.   Equally important for Vail Marriot was the significant cost savings provided by THG’s solution compared to solutions offered by other vendors.

The THG Solution

For Vail Marriott, THG replaced its existing wireless infrastructure, which was outdated and based on a proprietary product from a vender who had gone out of business, with an industry standard solution from Hewlett-Packard (HP).   The THG solution consisted of 58 access points, 9 switches and a controller.   It was installed over 6 days in January 2011 and at no point during the installation was the hotel without Internet access—a key factor given that it was done during the peak ski season.   In addition to dramatically improving access speeds, the new architecture extended wireless capability to all common areas as well as all guest rooms, providing full access to areas not previously covered.   This solution will be supported 24/7 from THG’s technical support call center in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Results

THG delivered Vail Marriott’s solution on time and on budget.   When a problem with a supplier’s ability to deliver on the originally selected access points threatened to delay the entire project, THG quickly sourced a technologically superior substitute. THG absorbed the cost differential enabling the project to remain on time and on budget.   While difficult to accurately calculate Vail Marriott’s return on investment (ROI) given the way Internet Access is priced and bundled, there is no question that the payback period on their investment will be minimal.   Being able to market best-in-class Internet Access across their entire resort, including their extensive meeting spaces, is critical to driving increased revenue to their business.