Wooing Customers With Good Digital Facilities

By Shyla Sangaran

THE Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa in Langkawi is an ideal place to unwind yet able to stay connected anytime, anywhere. It provides dial-up Internet connectivity in its rooms and Wi-Fi connectivity at its Pelangi Lounge, Niyom Thai Restaurant, Spice Market Restaurant and Horizon PoolBar.

According to its management information systems manager Alvin Dinesh, ever since the resort provided Wi-Fi capability in January, there has been overwhelming response from guests, who are mostly leisure travellers.

The resort’s business centre is fully equipped with scanning, printing, Internet, facsimile, e-mail and secretarial services with four PCs and ample network ports.

To cater to a wider audience, the Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa is in the midst of launching its banquet hall for 400 dinner seatings equipped with Internet facility. And there is more to the forward- thinking hotel’s computerisation expansion plans.

Alvin said the resort is planning to implement PayTV services soon. Through PayTV, guests will be able to select any particular service such as order food, give preferences, register for recreational activities, listen to music, download pay-movies, ringtones and wallpaper, or even play games through the TV in their room.

PayTV will also provide a fullfledged Web site that allows guests to do simple Web activities such as surf the Yahoo! or Google Web site and check e-mail.

A majority of the resort’s guests book their hotel rooms online. The resort’s Web site also features forums and blogs for guest feedback.

“Our next project is to promote our Web site in various languages such as Japanese, Middle Eastern, Spanish and Russian,” Alvin said.

The Pelangi Beach Resort & Spa is currently using the German- made Opera System with Microsoft and SAP solutions. So far, it has invested over RM1 million to improve its technology infrastructure.

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