Luxury Cars Run With Deluxe Services

Many five-star hotels and luxury resorts have equipped modern, deluxe conveniences to improve their services. Mercedes-Benz Vietnam sees this as a great potential market for its luxury sedans.

Udo Loersch, general director of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam, says this trend is a good match, as a five-star hotel should have a fleet of sedans of the same standard. So the company’s fleet handover function at the Caravelle Hotel early this week was more of a superior quality show than a commercial deal, when executives from both the automaker and the high-class hotel gathered together to speak of the premium services to be rendered to customers of the hotel.

Haxaco, a dealer of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam, has handed over two E-Class cars to the five-star hotel. With this two top-of-the-line E-Class, Caravelle Hotel is updating the latest models of Mercedes-Benz to expand their existing fleet. Especially, the hotel has become the first customer of Mercedes-Benz in-car hotspot, which makes it available for passengers to use the Internet and email wirelessly and fast on the road.

John Gardner, general manager of Caravelle Hotel, says: “Having worked closely with Mercedes-Benz for the last several years as the supplier for our vehicles, we are proud to further update our fleet with the latest model E-Class cars with environmental features consistent with our own environmental policies and inbuilt wi-fi for complimentary Internet access for our guests.”

E-Class is the top luxury sedan meeting high-level requirements of Caravelle Hotel. It is also currently the most luxurious business saloon made in Vietnam. Beside the attractive image with luxury eye-catching design, E-Class with top-of-the-line technology gives passengers top safety, superlative comfort and a peaceful feeling, just like sitting in a luxurious room of a five-star hotel.

The two E-Class cars are the first fleet updated by Caravelle Hotel, to be followed by another fleet soon in 2011. Caravelle Hotel has been a loyal customer of Mercedes-Benz for years. The updating of the new Mercedes-Benz fleet is a continuation of long-term co-operation with and trust of Caravelle Hotel in Mercedes-Benz. “Mercedes-Benz has strong cooperation with five-star hotel and resort chains all over the world. We not only provide top image via our innovative cars and brand, but also integrate innovative features to provide the best solutions for our partners. This time, we integrate the hotspot to satisfy the Caravelle’s needs to provide Internet and email services for their customers in car,” says the general director of Mercedes-Benz Vietnam.

Internet on the road

As one of Saigon’s most historic addresses, Caravelle Hotel continues to set the pace for five-star properties operating in this largest city of Vietnam. Its new hotel-wide wi-fi system reaches as far as the fleet of cars, whether the chauffeur-driven vehicles are picking up guests at the airport or ferrying business travelers between appointments.

The hotel’s progressive approach to wi-fi means clients can now log in before they check in the room. Even in their transportation of guests, the Caravelle has made Internet service available. With the hotspot from Mercedes, the Internet and email in-car services are now improved further to bring more convenience and satisfaction to their customers.

“This new complimentary hotel-wide service ensures that guests can touch base with work and stay in touch with family no matter where they are or what they’re doing. Whether in the car on the way to the airport or sitting in the lobby, as long as you are with the Caravelle, you’re always online,” says Gardner.

Business and leisure travelers today expect instant and easy access to the Internet. Gardner says at his hotel guests don’t even need a password. “Furthermore, with our hotspot connection in all hotel cars, you are online minutes after touching down. That’s especially handy in a city famed for its chaotic traffic.”

Hotspot is a device to transfer data wirelessly to be installed in car and is technically connected with the car’s roof aerial. All what customers need is a WLAN-enable terminal device such as a laptop or a smart phone and a SIM card that allows data communication. The system supports rapid and stable connection to the most familiar data network through the car’s roof aerial. What needed to do is to insert the data-enabled SIM card to the hotspot, which will be installed in the car by Mercedes-Benz technicians. Then passengers can get in-car wireless Internet on their laptop or mobile phone everywhere, at any time.

Market expansion

The development of the hospitality business in Vietnam has gone along with many new projects built in famous cities throughout the country. In the meantime, the existing luxury hotels and resorts have to catch up with the trend. They have to further expand and upgrade their facilities to meet the increasing demand in both number and quality.

Supporting the development of tourism of Vietnam in general and the trend to extend and upgrade facilities of luxury hotels in particular, Mercedes-Benz Vietnam has attached special importance to this trend. The company is further extending its business to luxury hotels and resorts.

“It is obvious that Vietnam tourism has developed very strongly in recent years. We are happy that our luxury cars with cutting-edge technology and top image have been closely associated with five-star hotels like Caravelle Hotel, who wants to bring service at the highest level to customers,” says Udo Loersch. “Through our various projects with luxury hotels and other organizations, we are proud to contribute our part in further promoting Vietnam’s good image to foreign visitors.”

Along with the development of hospitality business in Vietnam, this year Mercedes-Benz Vietnam has focused strongly on cooperation projects with luxury hotels and resorts via the support of financial solutions, preferential services and training. The company is happy that most of the luxury hotels nationwide have associated with Mercedes-Benz as the number-one solution.