Telecoms

Focus on Hospitality, powered by Focus Group

Focus on Hospitality is a specialist division within Focus Group, dedicated to helping hotels and hospitality businesses build smarter, more connected operations.  

Combining decades of experience in both technology and hospitality, we deliver tailored solutions that enhance guest experiences, improve operational efficiency, and protect your business. 

Our expertise spans every aspect of hotel technology, including: 

  • Connectivity – fast, reliable broadband and Wi-Fi designed for seamless guest and staff use. 

  • Telecoms – cloud telephony, contact centres, and guest room systems for exceptional communication. 

  • Cybersecurity – enterprise-grade protection to safeguard guest data and business systems. 

  • CCTV & Access Control – advanced, AI-driven security and monitoring  

  • IT Services & Support – proactive monitoring, managed IT, and vCTO consultancy to align your tech strategy with your business goals. 

  • Business Energy – expert procurement and management to help control costs and meet sustainability targets. 

What sets us apart is our deep understanding of hospitality operations — from PMS integrations to digital check-in, we ensure your technology enhances every stage of the guest journey. Whether you manage an independent boutique property or a multi-site hotel group, Focus on Hospitality provides the trusted expertise to keep your business connected, secure and future-ready. 

Focus on Hospitality: essential technology build for hospitality. Created by experts, perfected by hoteliers, designed for your success 

 

Alessandra Leoni 

Head of Hospitality 

Alessandra Leoni

Head of Hospitality

A Case Study: Radisson Blu

With a collection of nine hotels across central London, Radisson Blu ensures a warm and welcoming stay when visiting their spaces, with all the small details taken care of, so your time away is at its best. Combining convenience and individuality, these hotels offer an inviting ambience designed to make customers' days at the most desirable of destinations feel like no other.

With the investment firm, Starwood Capital, purchasing these luxurious hotels, a complex transition of IT and technology needed to take place to separate the nine properties from the previous hotelier ownership’s IT estate and migration to the new management company Axiom Hospitality. This transition would be incredibly time-sensitive, with the full decoupling needing to be undertaken during a legally binding three-month transitional service agreement.

And so, Starwood Capital needed a team that could fully manage the transition and onboarding of their IT Managed Service, delivering effective and swift solutions to ensure deadlines were met. Focus Group provided an extensive and expert project team to undertake the transition, with several imperative areas given the time and dedication needed to ensure the hotels were fully operational during the transition period.

First, we delivered a handover of the Network Environment for the properties, including Cisco Meraki Switching and Wireless, and firewalls covering corporate, guest, event, and TV systems. This meant communication could be smooth, swift, and safe for everyone to utilise.

From there, we brought in the migration of a Microsoft 365 tenancy, including Emails, SharePoint, and OneDrive, for the 600 users over the nine hotels and a rebuild of over 400 devices via Autopilot.

Working closely with Axiom Hospitality, we also documented and onboarded peripheral systems such as In Room TV Systems, data cabling, Digital Signature, Alcatel telephony, and printing, ensuring teams could integrate with the new systems. Additionally, we provided a detailed handover pack for 50+ Virtual Servers and 20+ Physical Servers.

Throughout the project, we oversaw the full management and governance, offering support for any queries from Axiom Hospitality and ensuring Radisson Blu's teams experienced a smooth and confident transition.

“The separation of the properties from Edwardian Group was an operationally and technically challenging project, managing multiple third-party providers during a very short transition window. Focus Group provided a project team that fully managed the transition and onboarding of our IT Managed Service. Focus Group showed their expertise and experience in the hospitality sector providing high-quality technical and Project Management resources to ensure the strict timelines were met.”

— Anael Peu, Chief Commercial & Technology Officer, Axiom Hospitality

A Case Study: Exclusive Hotels

Founded in the 1980s, Exclusive Hotels encapsulates excitement and enjoyment across its luxurious establishments. Running across the 5-star sector, the Exclusive collection captures a fairytale charm, creating a sense of wonder and unbridled joy experienced by every guest. From historic rooms to various activities across their locations, Exclusive Hotels have created something completely unique - extraordinary locations for everyone to enjoy.

Exclusive Hotels were struggling with an outdated telephone system. This wasn't ideal, as the hotel chain wanted to implement improved call routing and work-from-home operations throughout their infrastructure.

On top of that, improved flexibility was a priority for them. For a lot of the hotel's staff, it’s not an office environment - not sitting behind a desk with a fixed phone taking calls. And so, they needed a solution that would enable them to have complete roaming capabilities around the grounds.

Ultimately, Exclusive Hotels' telecoms needed a fresh coat of paint, a new system the hotel could really utilise and take advantage of the complex call routes across the whole group of properties. Not only that, but it needed strong reporting features and portable availability so staff could answer calls and incorporate their guys on the move into their core routing plans.

However up until now, Exclusive was reliant on third-party engineers, who were providing underwhelming support throughout the years.

Exclusive Hotels were struggling with an outdated telephone system. This wasn't ideal, as the hotel chain wanted to implement improved call routing and work-from-home operations throughout their infrastructure.

On top of that, improved flexibility was a priority for them. For a lot of the hotel's staff, it’s not an office environment - not sitting behind a desk with a fixed phone taking calls. And so, they needed a solution that would enable them to have complete roaming capabilities around the grounds.

Ultimately, Exclusive Hotels' telecoms needed a fresh coat of paint, a new system the hotel could really utilise and take advantage of the complex call routes across the whole group of properties. Not only that, but it needed strong reporting features and portable availability so staff could answer calls and incorporate their guys on the move into their core routing plans.

However up until now, Exclusive was reliant on third-party engineers, who were providing underwhelming support throughout the years.

Our team of experts provided Exclusive with an Ericsson LG UCP 600 telephone system. This system provides everything a hotel needs (and more), operating through the cloud.

Ericsson LG delivers a truly integrated end-to-end voice and data solution that optimises business efficiency. This was the perfect solution for a complex call-routing set-up, with multiple auto attendants allowing for swift transfer over to another hotel - ensuring calls were never missed. The cloud capabilities also meant communication could be swift and seamless no matter where on-site a call was occurring.

From there, we enabled the “I Call Software”, which is a full suite of reporting tools, allowing the staff to monitor all call traffic inbound and outbound across every hotel.

By using this software and having all these reporting features in one, unified place, Exclusive Hotels can really see what’s happening across their business in real time. Even better, this system will also grow and adapt alongside Exclusive as they continue to evolve and expand.

Our team of experts provided Exclusive with an Ericsson LG UCP 600 telephone system. This system provides everything a hotel needs (and more), operating through the cloud.

Ericsson LG delivers a truly integrated end-to-end voice and data solution that optimises business efficiency. This was the perfect solution for a complex call-routing set-up, with multiple auto attendants allowing for swift transfer over to another hotel - ensuring calls were never missed. The cloud capabilities also meant communication could be swift and seamless no matter where on-site a call was occurring.

From there, we enabled the “I Call Software”, which is a full suite of reporting tools, allowing the staff to monitor all call traffic inbound and outbound across every hotel.

By using this software and having all these reporting features in one, unified place, Exclusive Hotels can really see what’s happening across their business in real time. Even better, this system will also grow and adapt alongside Exclusive as they continue to evolve and expand.

“Working with Focus has been a pleasure. They have the skill and competency, but also that human touch to enable real conversations, which often isn’t the case. Often you find you sacrifice skill and competency for a company that is maybe a bit too big, and you don’t matter so much. But Focus does have that, and I would wholeheartedly recommend them.”

— Samuel Ackford, IT, Exclusive Collection