The secrets of successful hotel Wifi
The route out of lockdown is finally in sight, and for the first time in months people are starting to think about booking holidays again. It is a good opportunity for leisure and tourism businesses to get their affairs in order, hopefully ahead of a bumper summer. How can they ensure they deliver the very best service to their customers? In this day and age, smooth, reliable Wifi connectivity is undoubtedly an important piece of the picture.
Wifi has multiple different roles to play in the modern hotel. Certainly it is an important facility to offer guests, who increasingly expect to be able to surf the internet, stream video and play games on connected devices from both their rooms and communal areas. However, it is also a crucial part of hotel services beyond a core leisure offer. Many hotels have branched out into services for corporate clients, from working and meeting facilities on by the hour or day basis, through to full-scale conference and corporate event packages. For all of these offerings, superfast and highly reliable Wifi is absolutely critical – as well as a clear means for forward-thinking hotels to increase their Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR). And that’s before we even consider the crucial role of hotel WiFi behind the scenes, underpinning communications and critical services for the hotel’s staff.
Furthermore, there is the growing role of IoT ecosystems in hotel businesses to consider. More and more hotel businesses are recognising the opportunities for both operational efficiency and an extra-special guest offering engendered by the IoT, from smart buildings solutions to streamline facilities management, through to new approaches to guest entertainment. All this requires a solid WiFi infrastructure too.
But what exactly are the secrets of successful hotel Wifi? From tiny boutiques all the way to major international chains, from single bed and breakfasts through to enormous resorts, the basic principles remain the same. Wifi needs to be strong and reliable throughout the hotel – no matter how large the building, unusual the layout or building materials, or even how old the hotel is. Performance needs to be consistent – guests should not discover that one member of their party is enjoying better signal than another, or that performance has dramatically improved or dropped between visits. Access needs to be straightforward, with guests remembered between visits. And security is always paramount.
Achieving all of this can seem like a tall order, particularly in complex premises. Older buildings or those which have been converted into hotels, for example, can be particularly tricky. However, today’s technological solutions can ensure a top-quality Wifi offering even in the most challenging hotel environments.
RUCKUS is a prime example of a specialist in in Wifi solutions for hotels and the hospitality industry – a specialist which acutely understands these demands and requirements.
The first step to delivering a Wifi solution fit for a modern hotel is to install a smart wireless LAN, which forms the basic infrastructure for the system. A LAN is the perfect foundation for a secure, flexible, utterly bespoke WiFi environment. RUCKUS’s smart wireless LAN systems are typically configurable in minutes, with installation as straightforward is plugging in an access point. Even in older properties, pre-existing cabling can often be used.
Next, RUCKUS enables tiered WiFi services, with each smart Wifi access point supporting multiple individual networks. These can then be configured with their own policies, to suit different access types and levels in different areas within the hotel.
RUCKUS also enables latency-sensitive applications in real-time, which means a smoother, clearer and more reliable service for guests. This is of course crucial regardless of whether they are in the hotel for business or pleasure.
Finally, remote control enables hotel managers and other personnel to configure their RUCKUS wireless system from anywhere – inside or outside the hotel. This means that technical teams can be located remotely, and multi-site hotels can be managed centrally.
It all adds up to an outstanding hotel Wifi offering, tailor-made for today’s businesses. To learn more about how RUCKUS and MLR Networks could tailor-make a WiFi solution for your hotel business, get in touch with us today.