The Metro Hotel, Newquay
Sam and Helen Cobley set up the Metro Hotel in Newquay two years ago.
From the outset, they had a clear idea of what they wanted to achieve. "We wanted to create somewhere contemporary, fresh and different that would appeal to young, upmarket people" says Sam.
"For young people, the Internet is the norm and so it made total sense to ensure we included internet access as part of our service. At the time we set up, we thought ‘who else is providing this in Newquay?'
"We received some great advice from actnow and they recommended that we go wireless. This was two years ago so at the time wireless broadband was quite new but I believed that it was the future. We were not quite sure how it would go at first, but on our very first day, a couple arrived and the wife was on the Internet looking at her emails before she had even checked in!"
The Metro provides a PC on a contemporary desk in the guest lounge free of charge.
"The Internet is used absolutely constantly" says Sam. "There is hardly any time at all that it is not in use. I would say that providing wireless broadband access has been an absolute godsend, a revelation."
Sam continues "Wireless broadband is an additional service for guests and one that they really value – even expect. Broadband access has definitely given us an advantage over our competition over the last couple of years. The word is out now but, to be honest, I have been careful not to tell other hotels too much about it up until now because I didn’t want to lose our edge.
"There are some business people who have only selected our hotel because they know they can get broadband here. We also provide a free printing service so they can have all their papers for their work schedule printed out for them if they want. And a number of guests have told us that they found our hotel after typing ‘broadband access’ into a search engine.
"So there is no question that wireless broadband has made a huge difference to our ability to attract and satisfy our target audience. You only have to look at all the BMWs and Porsches that are always in our car park to see that we have bucked the trend in Newquay!"
