PORTO PALACE HOTEL, GREECE

The hospitality field is one of NEC Philips’ strong suits. In Greece, both business and leisure hotels are enthusiastic about the company’s communication solutions.

Customer Profile

The Porto Palace Hotel in Thessaloniki in northern Greece is one of the few five-star hotels operating as a family business. Its chief executive Dimitrios Mamadas comes from a line of industrialists in the leather goods field – the hotel’s impressive building was previously used as a leather warehouse. The investment in the premises in Thessaloniki, which the Mamadas family acquired in 1987, has been phenomenal. During a recent three-year renovation period skilled craftsmen were brought from Serbia and costly materials were imported from Italy. After completing his postgraduate studies in the US, Dimitrios Mamadas played an active part in managing the project.

The hotel opened its doors in September 2005. It has 157 standard and 16 business rooms, as well as luxury suites and conference facilities for up to 2,000 guests. Mamadas explains that the Porto Palace is in the five-star plus category, which gives it a competitive advantage over other top hotels. “Just a few months after opening, our occupancy rate was 42 per cent,” he enthuses. “That’s pretty good, given that the local average for established hotels is between 50 and 55 per cent.”

Requirements

For a hotel like the Porto Palace, which is targeted at the international business community, the right choice of telecommunication solutions is key to success. Mamadas personally studied the market. "The name and reputation of NEC Philips were important considerations, but there were other good contenders too,” he says. Initially he established contact with NEC Philips through a dealer, but the communication with the national sales organisation was so good that Mamadas chose to deal with NEC Philips Athens directly. “The NEC Philips people showed a keen interest in the building and had the right experience. An old building like this poses its own problems, but with their help we overcame them all.” On a more personal level, Mamadas enjoyed the contact with NEC Philips’ George Tsiourakis.

When the SOPHO 2000 IPS system was up and running, Tsiourakis even visited the hotel with his family. For the bi-directional communication between the hotel’s front office and the SOPHO 2000 IPS, Mamadas initiated close co-operation with HITT, a local specialist in hotel applications, which included support of the Protel package.

Solution

Mamadas specifically mentions the solution’s interactive features. When a guest enters his or her room, a personalised welcome message automatically appears on the (Philips) TV screen, which sets the tone for the excellent communication between the guest and the hotel staff. He is convinced that features like this will be greatly appreciated by business guests who come flocking to Thessaloniki, particularly in September. This is when every year the International Trade Fair is held, attracting over a quarter of a million visitors and hundreds of exhibitors. The largest event of its kind in Greece, the fair is the ideal place to network and launch new products and services.