Bedruthan Hotel and Spa

Our expert managed IT services and support provided Bedruthan Hotel and Spa with crucial IT assistance, serving as a safety net during a potential data disaster.

Bedruthan Hotel and Spa is part of The Red Hotels group along with its sister hotel the Scarlet. Bedruthan Hotel and Spa is a beautiful, family oriented hotel in Mawgan Porth, Newquay, and has been cherished by two generations of the same family for over 50 years. The hotel caters to the needs of its guests around the clock and provides an elegant setting, excellent service and luxury facilities including pool, spa, restaurant and bar.

The Challenge

The group were looking to outsource some of their IT management to ensure the gaps were filled in their systems and knowledge. Croft have a strong reputation and were selected by the hotel due to their expertise and because they’re based locally. Croft‘s team adopted management of the hotel’s IT security, backup, servers and broadband, and provided support over extended hours. Their IT service and expertise proved to be a reliable and valuable asset to the hotel.

The most important part of the business for the hotel group is the delivery of round-the-clock, excellent customer service which includes operational efficiency underpinned by a comprehensive IT system.

The proprietors of Bedruthan Hotel and Spa were concerned that their front-of-house checking-in system, and the data stored on their server could be in jeopardy if they experienced an IT issue, such as a virus or database crash. The latter could spell chaos for staff and customers. Therefore, the hoteliers were keen to put in place IT security measures that would support the hotel’s ability to deliver to its high standards.

The Solution

IT Support Contract

This comprised both managed anti-virus and firewall protection software with 24/7 automatic monitoring of their systems and manual intervention, where needed. This way, potential attacks can be immediately identified, quarantined and the offending files or applications ideally eliminated as part of a proactive defence. In addition, an email filtering service was also provided to act as a further barrier to potential viruses and other threats entering the system via an opened email.

Server Backup and Disaster Recovery (BDR)

Each hotel had its own server located on site, from which, they ran the reception desk software, so customers could check in and out. Croft adopted the management of the servers to ensure their protection and smooth running, including regular updates and data capacity management, where required. In addition, a Backup and Disaster Recovery server was added to support all servers at the Bedruthan Hotel and Spa and the Scarlet Hotel. A further backup server was located, off-site in a separate building, to minimise the risk of data loss as part of their disaster recovery policy, covering events such as fire and theft.

Extended Hours Support

Since the hotels operate around the clock, it was important that IT support could be made available, as and when needed. Croft’s IT service also covered the time outside of normal business hours to minimise any impact on the hotels if the IT system is out of action, as this could lead to costly ‘business downtime’.

Broadband

Croft managed the broadband upgrade so that the hotel could operate on a faster, more reliable connection that could support multiple user access at the same time. Offering this facility to its customers is a necessary part of the hotels’ excellent service and should therefore meet customer expectations and demands. Croft performed a local search to identify the optimum internet connections available to the hotel and this resulted in an unlimited fibre to cabinet (FTTC).

We chose Croft as our IT Service Provider primarily due to the range of skills and solutions that Croft have to offer and secondly, because they’re based in the South West. We believe that having Croft on our door step will benefit us in terms of major incidents and getting staff on site if needed. As our IT Team only consists of 2 members of staff, having Croft as our IT Service Provider allows us to fill in missing gaps within our knowledge and also provides us with the necessary manpower and resources to keep our network, which spans across two busy hotels, up and running. We have been delighted with the friendly and knowledgeable approach that all the Croft technicians provide when we contact them.

Reece Elliot
IT Technician for Red Hotels

The Results

When the Bedruthan Hotel and Spa experienced a database crash, Croft’s BDR system was immediately there with the safety net! The database had tripped over itself when running the line-of-business application; the reservations and check-in system. The backup server was very quickly spun into action to recover the data, and systems were restored within the hour.

Similarly, and on a different occasion the hotel’s point-of-sale system failed when its server crashed which could have resulted in lost sales. However, the BDR system flew into action again retrieving lost data and restoring normal trading in under 30 minutes!