Le M‚ridien aims to cut costs by outsourcing control of its global IT infrastructure to data services firm Equant in a multi-year, €39m (£27m) deal.
Equant will host all the hotel group's critical business applications - including e-mail, accounting and booking systems - on servers at one of its data centres, providing staff with secure access over a single connection. It will also link more than 60 of Le Méridien's sites with an internet-based "virtual private network" (VPN).
Initially the VPN will carry just data, although in the future Le Méridien aims to run voice traffic over the network to support its four call centres handling reservations.
Meanwhile, the company's Cumberland hotel, at London's Marble Arch, has closed temporarily as its £90m refurbishment gathers pace. The hotel will reopen in summer 2004 as a "four-star de luxe" hotel with 1,020 bedrooms and enhanced conferencing facilities.
The company has also been busy opening a second hotel near the former Fiat car factory in Lingotto, Turin. The €23m (£16m) hotel is the 14th the company has opened this year and the third to incorporate the company's Art+Tech design style.