Exclusive Hotels and Venues, one of the most prestigious country house hotel groups in the UK, has recently confirmed that it will install in-room tablets provided by Crave Interactive in another of its properties, after the success of previous installations.
The group has been working with Crave – the UK market leader in providing in-room tablet and App-based solutions to the hospitality industry – since 2014, when the company’s state-of-the-art tablets were installed in every room at South Lodge, an Exclusive Hotels and Venues property in Sussex. A second installation at Pennyhill Park in Surrey followed, and now a third Exclusive Hotels and Venues property, the renowned The Manor House in Wiltshire has signed up with Crave.
According to Crave’s Commercial Director, Tim Butterworth, the third Exclusive signing confirms the value of in-room tablets to upscale country house hotels.
“In-room tablets are rapidly becoming an essential part of the guest experience in luxury hotels of all types, but benefits in terms of improving service and generating additional revenue are particularly pronounced in resorts and country house hotels with a large array of onsite services and activities,” Tim Butterworth said. “The results of the initial Crave installation at South Lodge were obvious, and we’re delighted that the other highly prestigious properties in the group have also got on board so quickly.”
Crave’s remotely operated, cloud-based tablet solutions enable hotels to provide guests with digital room service ordering, spa and activity bookings, instantly updateable digital directories and menus, and limitless scope for additional sales through push messaging and tailored in-room advertising. The company, which is based in the UK with a development centre in the Netherlands, has been at the leading edge of the in-room tablet and hotel App market in Europe for several years, and has recently begun making waves in the US, with significant signings at major resorts in California and Las Vegas.
David Connell, General Manager at South Lodge, said that he had been impressed with the experience of working with Crave, adding that the tablets had rapidly proved a great success with both guests and staff.
“We were very aware of the growing importance of in-room digital technology; it’s increasingly something that guests expect as standard, and we considered the options carefully before signing up with Crave. I’m pleased to say that both the tablets, and the support service provided have exceeded our expectations,” he said, adding that the benefits in terms of promoting guest services, activities and dining options at the hotel, which is home to a Michelin-starred restaurant, had quickly become obvious.
“The tablets’ ease of use, for both guests and staff, has been particularly impressive, and our positive experience with Crave was key to the decisions by other Exclusive Hotels and Venues properties to follow suit,” David Connell said.
The Manor House, the most recent Exclusive signing for Crave, will be providing guests with the Crave T2, the recently launched new version of the Crave Tablet, the world’s first tablet designed specifically for use in hotel rooms.
According to Crave Founder and CEO, Gareth Hughes, the company’s state-of-the-art custom-made tablets are the product of years of experience in the in-room tablet market.
“Like our competitors, we originally delivered our solutions via commercial mass-market tablets. But over the years we gathered a great deal of feedback from both guests and hotel management about which features worked well, and which were less suitable for use in hotel rooms, so the obvious next step was to create our own tablets, taking all that insight into account,” he said, adding that the latest T2 tablet featured a unique docking system created to take account of hotel power supply scenarios.
“Properties like The Manor House are discovering that Crave offers not only the most user-friendly and effective content and delivery when it comes to in-room tablets, but also a uniquely practical and stylish device through which all that is delivered,” Gareth Hughes said.
