Hidden Lake Hotel & Apartments
Location: Cambridge - New Zealand
Project type: Luxury Hotels Bussiness
Lake Te Koutu, the hidden lake, is one of New Zealand’s gems. Situated in the heart of the heritage town of Cambridge, ‘Home of Champions’ it offers travellers the pristine hills, forests and waters for which New Zealand is justifiably famous.
It is here that the Hidden Lake Hotel was built, first opening its doors on Christmas Eve 2019. This small hotel, with its 34 rooms, onsite restaurant and bar was designed to combine comfort with a natural, sustainable design.
It caters primarily for corporate travellers during the week, whilst weekends see it hosting the families that flock to the area for its world famous cycling and rowing events.
Figures
- 38 access points
Our staff program a key at reception when guests arrive, which gives them access to their apartment and also to the lift and the front entrance door. If a guest were to lose their key, we can just cancel it and reprogram another one.
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The hotel wanted to offer an internal environment that was as memorable and appealing as the area’s natural beauty. The design aesthetic had to be carried through to every detail in the building. Hidden Lake wanted to complement a beautiful setting with outstanding customer service and to do this, needed to ensure that hotel operations were highly efficient, freeing staff to focus on helping customers to enjoy their stay.
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Hotel managers Chris and Glenda understood the role that technology can play in hotel operations and customer service, and in particular the importance of electronic access control (EAC) systems. So they engaged EAC provider SALTO Systems and their local Hamilton-based partner Select Alarms to help them design the perfect solution.
Ross Green of Select Alarms takes up the story: “We knew that for this new build, the aesthetic was as important as the technical functionality of the EAC. SALTO has a ‘door designer’ system called MyLock Configurator, which we used to help Chris and the team see how the different SALTO handles would look like in the hotel. We created visualised mock-ups, where they could even change the different woodgrain options for the doors. It meant they could confidently choose the doors and door furniture that would best complement the hotel design.”
Select Alarms supplied and installed the system, using SALTO’s Alement locks for the 40 guest apartments, main entrance doors, spa and lift. The system is controlled through SALTO’s SPACE software running on the PC in the hotel reception.
Hidden Lake uses the SALTO Virtual Network (SVN), a patented ‘data on card’ approach, which enables them hotel to take advantage of the cost effectiveness of stand-alone (wireless) doors for the majority of access points. They use these on the apartment doors, complemented by two wired card readers at reception and on the main access door.
“Our staff program a key at reception when guests arrive”, explains Chris, “which gives them access to their apartment and also to the lift and the front entrance door. Access automatically expires on checkout but if they decide to extend their stay, we can simply and quickly modify the key. If a guest were to lose their key, we can just cancel it and reprogram another one.”
Hidden Lake offers guests exclusive use of its spa - also managed through the same key. “When they book the spa, their key is programmed to give them access only at the time they have booked”.
Hidden Lake Hotel has hit on the perfect combination of design, service and location that has attracted guests from all over the North and South Islands. They have harnessed the power of EAC technology to help run a highly efficient operation and to deliver an outstanding guest experience.
Key benefits
- Guest Security - there is no room information shown on the key, and if a key goes missing it can be immediately cancelled.
- Guest experience - checking in, or extended their stay is an efficient and easy process.
- Privacy - guests can book the spa knowing they have exclusive access.
- Efficient management - the front doors can be locked at night, when reception is not manned, and guests can still access the building at any time.
- Cost effective - SVN allows the hotel to use stand-alone, wireless locks on all apartment doors, at a considerably lower cost than having wired doors throughout the hotel.
- Ease of maintenance - wireless access points make the apartment doors very simple to maintain.
- Design aesthetic - the locks are slimline and unobtrusive, perfectly complementing the building.
- Ease of use for staff - the SALTO software is runs on the front office PC and is intuitive and simple.
- Technical support - if the hotel IT staff have any queries or questions, SALTO staff are always available on the phone and very happy to help.
Hidden Lake Hotel is luxe accommodation in a beautiful corner of New Zealand. We’re delighted to be part of this quality project - the SALTO hospitality solution has delivered real security and operational benefits for the owners, staff and guests.
