CASE STUDY
The New Inn
The New Inn is a Grade II listed pub and hotel in the Hampshire village of Heckfield that’s been in the same family for the past 50 years.
Background
The New Inn is a Grade II listed pub and hotel in the Hampshire village of Heckfield that’s been in the same family for the past 50 years. Despite being a quaint hostelry, their technology challenges and requirements were actually broad, in order to work with a number of problems created by their relatively remote location.
The challenge
Heckfield is a pretty Hampshire village, but it would be fair to say rural and so the obvious problem of mobile signal inside the building and broadband speeds would create problems for the staff and customers alike. An initial survey by Holler Technology established that because of the distance from the exchange broadband was delivering a woeful 1Mb download and 0.2Mb upload speed. Nowhere near sufficient to keep tills and PDQ machines and CCTV cameras and customer smartphones connected to the internet. And with practically zero mobile signal inside the building, it could’ve spelt disaster for encouraging customers to return again and again.
The solution
Initial online and then location surveys established that there was no alternatives to the poor broadband but to opt for a full gigabit leased line. There was no FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) or FTTP (Fibre to the Premises) and bonding together broadband would not have delivered the speeds required. An order was placed for a full gigabit fibre leased line and despite the somewhat rural location a lead time of 2 months was quoted which tied in with the planned reopening in March 2023, after 3 months of refurbishment.
A new cloud voice phone system was required for front-of-house areas (Reception, Bar, Restaurant) and also for the 16 guest rooms and as the mobile signal was almost non-existent inside the building it was even more important they had access to a cloud solution that could be used throughout the building over WiFi, for both customers and staff alike. This meant that staff could now use their existing mobile with an app and be contactable anywhere throughout the site. It also meant that coworkers could see when their colleagues were on calls and the user would have access to voice recording and the ability to transfer calls too, something you can’t do with mobiles even with a signal.
In order to get the WiFi coverage for both voice and internet Holler designed a solution that provided the coverage and secure and guest log-ins for staff and customers and a plethora of devices which included tills, CCTV, PDQ etc.
Richard Burbage, CEO of Holler Technology, explains further “at first glance The New Inn seemed a simple requirement, but it was only when drilling down and asking the pertinent questions that we began to identify in advance what the challenges were going to be and to set about resolving them. It was immediately apparent that a proper leased line would be the foundation of everything that a busy pub, restaurant and hotel needs. Customers like the historical building and location but they want connectivity. I’m pleased to say our solution of cloud voice, building-wide WiFi and leased line internet has helped The New Inn’s continued success”.
Tom Faulkner, Head Chef & Company Director of The New Inn, had this to say “when we took over the premises we already knew there were problems with the internet but as we started to refurbish and refresh just about everything from CCTV to point-of-sale tills to TVs it was obvious we would need a better solution in terms of connectivity. Holler were recommended to us and it was obvious they understood the challenges and had the necessary solution to offer us. After a few tentative weeks running on the existing broadband, whilst waiting for the gigabit leased line to be installed, we really understood the problems first hand! Even taking credit card payments was painfully slow. Thankfully, since the leased line installation everything has worked like a dream and the gigabit bandwidth no longer seems like overkill but gives us room to grow in to”.
Our Result
So often these days the success of a pub, restaurant, hotel isn’t just about location, quality of the food or facilities but the upload speed of their internet for social media and staying connected to friends and family! We’ve all experienced slow internet or complex log-ins for WiFi at venues and it can sometimes stop us returning. The New Inn has proved successful because they have the foundations right for success; great location, great food, great service and great internet!
