Marina Hotel
James Coggan has been running the Marina Villa Hotel and Restaurant in Fowey since 1999. He is constantly looking for ways to keep the hotel fresh and competitive and is currently about to revamp the restaurant to make it more contemporary.
He was one of the first to sign up to broadband when it became available in Fowey in late 2004.
James immediately saw the potential of creating wireless broadband access at the hotel.
"For me, it was a no-brainer. It cost very little to set up and it provides an extra facility for the hotel, which certainly generates some extra business for us.
"For example, I have an affluent couple here at the moment. They are staying for a week whilst they look for a house to buy. The husband needs to stay in touch with his business and so when they were looking for a hotel, they only considered hotels which had wireless broadband access."
James says ‘"the Internet is now our main source of business. I have been told by some guests that they have done an Internet search of hotels to find which ones have wireless broadband and that is why they have chosen us."
James adds "We have wireless broadband access just about everywhere in the hotel. The reception is excellent. We provide a laptop in the private lounge and it is available to all guests free of charge and with no access codes, to keep it all as easy and convenient as possible. Our guests love it and I would say most of them use it – either to keep in touch with business, catch up with emails or just as a source of information. Guests from overseas are always especially pleased that they can use broadband here."
James, who is about to put up some additional signage to highlight the availability of the wireless hotspot, says "providing broadband access is something which has added another edge to our hotel."
