RAFFLES HOTEL SINGAPORE TAKES ITS LEGENDARY GUEST EXPERIENCE TO THE NEXT LEVEL WITH ADYEN

The iconic Raffles Hotel Singapore has appointed Adyen as its strategic partner to enhance its digital experience across the hotel’s room reservations, food and beverage offerings, as well as spa and boutique stores.

(TRAVPR.COM) NETHERLANDS - December 1st, 2020

Raffles Hotel Singapore has appointed Adyen, the global payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, as its preferred payments partner to deliver a holistic and frictionless hospitality experience within and beyond its iconic property walls.

Always committed to being relevant and ever evolving to adapt to the changing needs of today’s traveller, the iconic Raffles Hotel Singapore is at the forefront of technology adoption with its latest offering of seamless and hassle-free payment experiences to its guests. Through Adyen, Raffles Hotel Singapore powers its unified commerce offering, providing simpler, faster and more customer-centric payment experiences across all sales channel touchpoints, from online to offline, including suite reservations, dining in its restaurants and bars as well as at Raffles Spa and Raffles Boutique.

Chadi Chemaly, Hotel Manager, Raffles Hotel Singapore comments:
“Delivering bespoke and sincere service is always at the core of our legendary Raffles experiences that guests have come to love and appreciate. We believe that the guest journey with Raffles Hotel Singapore needs to be seamless from the start to the end and payment processes are key to achieving this.

With innovative and flexible solutions, Adyen stood out to us as a preferred strategic partner to meet our vision. Collaborating with Adyen has successfully allowed us to deliver a promise that is secure and contactless while enhancing our offerings as a lifestyle destination where guests can stay, dine, shop, celebrate and relax as they create treasured memories, without interruptions.”

Warren Hayashi, President, Asia Pacific, Adyen comments:
“We are honoured to be chosen as the preferred payments partner to Raffles Hotel Singapore, and to support the property in meeting its vision of creating extraordinary experiences for its hotel guests. With our rich data and advanced technological capabilities, we are committed to providing the right insights to hotel partners, so they can drive smarter engagement, while focusing on the softer touches, as part of their recovery strategy.”

A new chapter in hotel guest experiences

Through this partnership with Adyen, Raffles Hotel Singapore is one of the first hotels in Singapore to offer a truly contactless check-in and check-out with tokenized payments, heralding a new chapter in hotel guests’ experiences. With the implementation of Adyen’s payment solutions, Raffles Hotel Singapore can now securely capture a guest’s card details, encrypt the data, and replace it with a secure token ensuring faster hassle-free checkout experiences later. The implementation of this technology reaffirms the iconic property's commitment to being at the forefront of innovation to deliver a guest experience that is seamless and holistic, allowing guests to enjoy the curated experiences, hassle-free.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has raised concerns around hygiene and safety, Raffles Hotel Singapore has always been committed to upholding the highest standards and delivering modern hospitality experiences to its guests. Prior to its reopening in August 2019, Raffles Hotel Singapore was already planning to implement contactless check-in/check-out which finally came into fruition in July 2020.

Contactless check-in/check-out means guests can register and check-in prior to arrival, and check-out via the web, on their mobile devices using a QR code, through a phone call, or via a mobile payment terminal brought to their room. The ability for guests to check-out and pay securely via a phone call is a first-of-its-kind offering for the hotel and provides a new channel touchpoint with hotel guests. Prior to leaving the property, without needing to visit the front desk or make payments, hotel guests will receive the option to check-out via a phone call, through which they can go through payment-related processes, ultimately minimising face-to-face interactions for payment matters. To date, the hotel has seen a 90% take-up rate for this check-out option.

Payments across locations and devices

With Adyen’s technical solution that supports a large variety of currencies and payment methods, Raffles Hotel Singapore will now be able to offer hotel guests and customers options to choose their preferred payment methods. The hotel will now be able to accept all major credit cards, as well as Alipay, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, UnionPay and WeChat Pay.

In addition, Adyen will provide simpler, faster and more customer-centric payment experiences across the following:

●   Raffles Hotel Singapore-operated restaurants: With its single platform approach and technical solutions, Adyen is giving the hotel property the ability to offer more local payment options, including via WeChat Pay and Alipay, as well as offer contactless in-restaurant payment options at the table through mobile point of sales terminals.

●   Raffles Spa & Raffles Boutique: With customer demands for contactless payment offerings, Adyen has enabled in-property retail outlets to offer tap-and-go alternatives across more payment options (via card and mobile wallets). This shortens queues in-store as the terminal response times have decreased and staff can also take payment terminals to customers around the shop.

●   E-commerce Platforms: With the rise of payment methods available and increased use of digital options, Raffles Hotel Singapore has implemented Adyen’s e-commerce platforms to extend its sales channels online for retail as well as food and beverage offerings. Additionally, online sales options will also be made available for special occasions such as Mid-Autumn Festival, Diwali, Christmas and Chinese New Year.

Adyen is committed to supporting hospitality partners across the world with tailored features for the industry, especially as they embark on the gradual road to recovery. From booking to check-out, and everything in between, Adyen takes a unified approach to help hotels manage payments and provide superior guest experiences.

About Adyen

Adyen (AMS: ADYEN) is the payments platform of choice for many of the world’s leading companies, providing a modern end-to-end infrastructure connecting directly to Visa, Mastercard, and consumers' globally preferred payment methods. Adyen delivers frictionless payments across online, mobile, and in-store channels. With offices across the world, Adyen serves customers including Facebook, Uber, Spotify, Microsoft, Casper, Bonobos and L'Oréal.

About Raffles Singapore (Raffles Hotel Singapore)

Opened in 1887, Raffles Singapore is one of the few remaining great 19th century hotels in the world. Till today, its architecture is perfectly preserved both inside and out, giving it an intoxicating blend of luxury, history and classic colonial design. Within its walls are more than a hundred expansive suites, framed by polished teak verandahs and white marble colonnades, clustered around lush tropical gardens. Each is serviced by the legendary Raffles butlers and offers every modern convenience necessary.

Raffles Singapore has recently undergone a careful and sensitive restoration and has fully reopened on 1 August 2019. The restoration of Raffles Singapore is designed to ensure that it retain what is so special about Raffles – the ambience, the service, the charm and the heritage of the hotel. It is also designed for Raffles Singapore to stay relevant and distinctive by moving with the times and with its guests and adapting to the changing needs of the well-travelled and Singapore’s community.