Elevating Guest Experiences with Relay at Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville

Nestled next to the historic Biltmore Estate, guests get lost in luxury as they walk past an inspiring art collection through the breathtaking lobby of the Grand Bohemian Hotel Asheville.

Staff in sharply pressed uniforms briskly attend to new arrivals.

And then…

”SKRRRzzzzzTTT….Housekeeping needed for Room 22!“ blasts out a walkie-talkie.

A moment of perfection shattered.

”Nothing ruins a luxury experience like people squawking over a radio,“ laments general manager Matthew Lehman.

Employees at the 104-room boutique hotel need to have a way to communicate quickly with each other to give guests the highest level of service possible.

Traditional radios had always been clumsy.

But the bulky radios they relied on never sat well with Lehman.

The hotel is a historic work of art in and of itself, where guests become immersed in an aesthetic experience.

Not only were the radios ineffective in some spots, they just looked out of place inside the Grand Bohemian.

”You have people you’re trying to have uniformed and outfit a certain way, and there’s a giant radio sticking out of the back of the jacket,“ said Lehman. ”Traditional radios had always been clumsy.“

When the mandate came down to install panic buttons throughout the property, Lehman turned to Relay to solve all of his communication problems at once.

With Relay’s panic button solution, his hotel would comply with the mandate. And with Relay doubling as a two-way communication device, he could replace all the clunky radios on the property with sleek, beautifully-designed Relays.

All for less than some of the quotes just to install panic button devices.

”We get the best of both worlds,“ boasts Lehman.

It didn’t take long for staff at the Grand Bohemian to realize all Relay can do to help improve service at a hotel. Especially with what Lehman calls ”the last mile of communication“ – that 10 to 15 seconds after a guest gets out of the valet until they reach the front desk.

With Relay devices, the driver can now easily and discreetly notify the front desk of a guest’s arrival, allowing more personalized and professional service that wasn’t possible with walkie-talkies.

”It’s the immediacy of communication that’s brought out by the small size of the device,“ explains Lehman.

With Relay’s ability to seamlessly toggle between wifi and cellular service, gone are the issues with dead spots inside the historic hotel.

Lehman says he’s had some fun testing the nationwide range of Relay devices. When his chief engineer had to visit a hardware store twenty miles from the hotel, they were able to use the two-way communication feature in the same way as if he was down the hallway.

And on a recent vacation, Lehman took testing Relay’s range one step further.

”I’ve literally been out of the country listening in on housekeeping chatter, much to my wife’s chagrin,“ said Lehman. ”We’ve had no issues.“

Housekeeping is where Lehman says the benefits of Relay have been the most obvious. Asheville is a busy market, and the Grand Bohemian runs at high capacity all year long.

With better communication through Relay, staff has been able to turn rooms around faster regardless of arrival times and meet guests’ needs more efficiently. That’s helped cut down on complaints.

”From a business standpoint, that’s been one of the best takeaways that we’ve seen in terms of dealing with Relay,“ said Lehman. ”We’ve really been impressed with the customer service as well as the product.“