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Courtyard Exeter Sandy Park

The Brand

Part of the 'Classic Select' collection of Marriott's 30 brands (to find out more, click here), Courtyard by Marriott Hotels is Marriott's largest brand, with over 1,200 hotels across the world.

Built specifically for business travellers, Courtyard strive to provide a hotel experience that "caters for the generational shifts in how guests work, live, and travel."

 

The Hotel

The newest of Courtyard's 13 UK based hotels, the state-of-the-art Courtyard Exeter Sandy Park is located just off the M5 motorway, providing easy access to Bristol, the West Country and Exeter's historic city centre. 

Following a £30M build, the hotel is the next stage in the development plans of Exeter's award-winning Sandy Park complex - home to Gallagher Premiership Rugby club, Exeter Chiefs, and the region's premier conference & banqueting venue.

The eight-storey property features 250 bedrooms, leisure facilities, an open plan bar, coffee lounge, a rooftop cocktail bar and a stunning glazed bridge, connecting the site to the Exeter Chiefs stadium.

 

The Technology

In keeping with the state-of-the-art Sandy Park facility, Airwave recommended Otrum's Enterprise interactive information system, embedded within the hotel TVs and  underpinning the guestroom entertainment system.

Built on an HTML foundation, Otrum Enterprise is a powerful software platform, delivering a seamless user experience across TVs, tablets and smartphones. Using a web-based content management system, Enterprise enables users to quickly and easily design and upload content.   

Airwave's design engineers put together a series of pages (based on Marriott branding), including: 

  • a number of information pages, including: a welcome page from the hotel's GM,  room details, restaurant information, local area information, gym information etc
  • 24/7 EPG (electronic programme guide) w/ international channels
  • a line-up of radio channels
  • Access to Google Chromecast, enabling guests to cast content from a smart device, to the television
  • An 'Internet TV' page, with access to smart services such as VOD movie app, Airtime, catch-up TV services, YouTube etc - offering smart services to guests without smart devices or the technical savyy to cast content
  • Local weather conditions (see below image)

 

Ahead of the implementation of Enterprise, Airwave installed an IPTV headend. This enabled the delivery of a portfolio of channels, including a full Freeview line-up, international channels and BT Sports.

Sandy Park chose Samsung hospitality TV displays, with 262 x 55-inch ET690U Series displays wall-mounted in the guestrooms, and a further 5 displays installed in the hotel's public areas, meeting rooms and the rugby club academy.

A further 6 x 32-inch ET690U Series displays were installed in public areas, all playing a variety of sport (with an emphasis on rugby, of course) from BT Sports channels.

Airwave were delighted to work with Wi-Fi partners, Mikenopa, who implemented a Wi-Fi 5 system throughout the hotel, providing guests with super-fast Wi-Fi connection both in the guestrooms, and in the public areas.

We're proud to have been part of this exciting project, providing Exeter with a much needed four-star hotel resource, to accompany the current high-end and budget portfolio within the city. I'm now an Exeter Chiefs fan, and hope they provide me with a little more pleasure than Arsenal!

Paul Chambers, Sales & Marketing Director, Airwave