News for the Hospitality Executive |
Wi-Fi is the New Four-Letter Word for Hoteliers
by
Terence Ronson, ISHC
May 10, 2012 Open
up
any Hospitality or travel related publication these days, and most
likely the
first story you will see is about Wi-Fi - the subject has become as
omnipresent
as the requirement for the service itself - everyone, and I mean
EVERYONE is
talking about it! Check
into a Hotel, and before you even get to your room, you have an
expectation
that this Hotel is worth its stars, and provided you (just like general
utilities - water, heat, light, gas and TV) with Internet access. If it
hasn't,
then you'd better do a U-turn before hitting the lift button and
selecting your
floor! As
mentioned in a previous article, prior to the birth of IOS [Apple's
operating
system], truthfully, we only scratched the surface and played around
with
implementing Wi-Fi in Hotels. But now, four years later with millions
and
millions of IOS devices in the hands of millions and millions of our
loving
Guests, this has become the most disruptive of technologies in the
modern
era. That along with the creation of the smartphone and its Big
Brother -
the TAB - where there are sales predictions of 153 million units next
year, and
climbing to 232 million by 2016. This has set loose a tsunami of
unparalleled
demand - for a strangely invisible service! No wonder CIO's call Wi-Fi
a
four-letter word. That's
one of the incredible aspects of Wi-Fi - it's invisible, and yet
mission
critical in importance. Not just for the Guest, but also operationally
- and
most especially, revenue generation and customer loyalty / brand
enhancement.
Just look at the volume and regularity of surveys being released - by
all
manner of sources - rating Wi-Fi as the #1 amenity Guests' seek -
allegedly,
even over free breakfast. Gone
are the days when we could simply place a network connection at the
desk in the
Guest room and maybe a few Wi-Fi routers in the corridor servicing a
bunch of
rooms - with spotty coverage at best. Often with good coverage found
only at
the front part of the room, near the room door since the Wi-Fi signal
would not
penetrate through the walls to the back of the room. Surprisingly
enough -
that's where most desks are located and people want to work - go figure
the
logic of that one! Sensibly,
based on the demand an importance of this service, one should deploy
enterprise
class, building wide, mobile device supporting networks - just like the
TelCos
[Telephone Company] would in the street. More on that later. During
refurbishment, some Hotels opt to place Wi-Fi routers into every room
for
maximum coverage. These neat devices about the size of two cigarette
packs [No
I don't smoke cigarettes only cigars] usually have one LAN port for
signal IN,
and three or four ports for Signal OUT and a Wi-Fi antenna using the
802.11n
protocol. Contemplating the next generation of these devices, likely
they will
sport USB connections and some other wireless connectivity modules,
such as
maybe Bluetooth and 802.11ac - the next speed bump for Wi-Fi. Being
POE in nature (Power Over Ethernet) meaning no additional electricity
power
source is required for these since they derive power from the network,
they are
re-bootable on demand. The IT Team can centrally manage them and be
VLAN
enabled with multiple SSIDs - a good cost effective solution to an
increasing
problem. Other
possibilities are for IPTV set top box to be Wi-Fi enabled - meaning
the
service provider can make you a 2-4-1 offer, IPTV and Wi-Fi over the
same
infrastructure. Also, there is the emergence of the Wi-Fi enabled TV,
and when
we finally get to the point of having a true Hospitality SMART TV [if
ever,
since most manufacturers find the sector too small when compared to
residential], then maybe, it will have this required functionality
built-in.
Don't hold your breath though. For
the
sake of repeating myself, today's Hotel Wi-Fi network [and more
critically
tomorrow's] is one of the principal areas in which your Hotel will be
judged.
Supply anything less than perfecto, and you are liable to end up with
an UNlike
on one, or quite possibly many, of the overabundance of social media
sites
quicker than you can say it's Happy Hour. Wi-Fi is part and parcel of
the guest
experience. And
don't be so naïve in thinking that this problem will go away - or
it's a fad.
You need a network that is capable of complete support for smart phones
and
TABs - some of which can be a real pain to deal with - most especially,
and
surprisingly enough - the iPad. Consider also the number of apps and
services
that use Wi-Fi - like Skype, FaceBook, WebEx, Email, DLNA, NetFlix and
gaming -
just to name a few. Reflecting
back, when we first put dedicated Internet access into Hotel rooms
during the
late nineties, the main way a Guest judged the service was by seeing
the speed
of the connection 10/100/1000 on the screen of their Laptop [now they
are
called Notebooks] - which actually was the LAN speed and not the
Internet pipe.
Then quickly followed Wi-Fi, and the Guest started to make comparisons
with
cell phone signal meters - 1,2,3,4,5 bars - on their mobile device, and
on
their Notebooks, they saw 'Excellent', 'Good' and the dreaded 'Poor'
rating in
front of their eyes. So, we didn't need to go round and check rooms -
the Guest
would simply tell us: "Hey, I've got a poor signal in my room - fix
it!" So,
is
Wi-Fi going the way of some mini-bars - free? As
Wi-Fi has technically grown-up, so has the Guest become more tech savvy
-
originally carrying a clunky notebook and cellphone, now he [no gender
discrimination implied] carries a notebook, TAB and one or more phones
-
usually the smart type - and they all need to get connected to the
Hotel's
Wi-Fi - simultaneously. Limiting
the number of connected devices to the in-room system no longer bauds
well for
Guest satisfaction. And besides, it's so easy to carry your own
wireless router
these days, If the Hotel [or service provider] is mean enough to
restrict the
number of connections, you simply plug a router into the LAN port [if
there is
one], and Bob's your Uncle - you have your own Wi-Fi bubble. For
heavens sake -
a MAC can even do it via the built-in sharing function. Admit it -
you've
likely used one of these options, or are at least considering it... Going
one step further - guests are BYOB [Bringing their own Broadband] by
using a
Wireless Hotspot [MiFi] or paying a daily package rate from their
provider back
home - which gives them an eat as much 3G data as they want in 24
hours. The
great part of that, when compared to Hotel Internet is that it's
portable - you
can take it around town - and not just leave it idling back in the
Hotel room -
where you may, at best, only realistically use the service 4-6 hours
per day.
That is unless you are like me, and leave one of your Notebooks in the
room
doing something so as to max out the ROI/cost of the
bandwidth...One
Hotel, the Aloft Bangkok even gives you a Smartphone when you check
into their Touch
Rooms, and this device includes a Hotspot facility that you can use
around
town at no extra cost. That's pretty kool! Oh
yes,
let's not forget the FREE versus FEE issue - which isn't going away. Cast
your minds back to when we first put mini-bars into Hotel rooms. Charge
a
premium for everything based on the convenience factor was the mantra,
and this
was when compared to buying your own stuff at 7-Eleven and bringing it
into the
Hotel. Then,
as the technology developed, Hotels started to swop out some fridges
for the
automatic type that would charge a Guest (after a reasonable time) for
an item
they selected - some of those units based on Guest pushback compromised
by
having a BYO [Bring Your Own] section where you could chill your own
stuff -
without being charged. Then came along the totally free mini-bar - not
just
equipped with a couple bottles of water and soda pop - but to also
include some
higher cost items like beers, up-scale juices and power drinks - plus a
few
snacks. Is this starting to sound familiar? Let's
compare this to Internet access, or Wi-Fi Mini-Bars
started out as a premium 'convenience' based service. The Guest liked
it, and
the Hotel made some revenue in the process. Then, the Guest discovered
a few
workarounds and also started to bring in their own stuff - replacing it
for
items in the mini bar. Some Hotels audaciously competed against the
mini-bar by
having a convenience store on-property [popular in the U.S. of A]. Then
finally, some Hotels said - let's just bundle the mini-bar, Guests only
want a
few items - so to save all the hassle and get good consumption and
higher
volumes of sales plus probably better discounts with suppliers - we
should give
it free. A nice USP for the Sales team when negotiating deals. So,
next on the Wish List - is Internet. We first put it in, and charged
for it.
Yes, there was initial resistance because it was a new line item on the
Travel
Expense form, but it soon gained acceptance from Finance as the
business people
said - "I can't function with out it." Just
like he did with the Mini-Bar, the Guest started to find workarounds
with
Wi-Fi: For example, go to a Coffee Shop - buy a Latte and get free
Wi-Fi. I
even read a recent FaceBook post saying "Starbucks can do great free
Wi-Fi, why can't Hotels?" Then
there's the pre-paid 3G card; put it into a MiFi gizmo and away you go.
Another
option is to bring your own Internet with a daily roaming pass from
your
service provider back home, and use it anywhere. We
know
only too well, budget/economy Hotels started to provide free Internet
as a
business driver, and so resistance [to paying for Wi-Fi] was NOT
futile. People
Power came in the form of migration to competitive brands or Hotels,
and this
has started to impact the bottom line. Shangri-La Hotels were the first
group
more than eighteen months ago to declare war by giving free Internet
access in
all their Hotels. And so the war has begun - some are winning a few
battles,
but the war is by no means over. So
what's the way forward? Honestly speaking - there is no simple answer. Deploying
a good quality Wi-Fi infrastructure has a cost. Running the service
also
carries a cost - and this increases exponentially as bandwidth demand
does.
Support costs may have reduced, since some Hotels have opted for the
DIY mode -
and have transformed this into in-house managed IT service. Naturally,
service
providers will argue that this has to be outsourced for numerous
reasons - and
I'm not going to debate those merits here. You have to work out your
own Pro's
and Con's or hire a Consultant [like me] to assist in that process. So
perhaps it comes down to pure economics - here's a few thoughts:
These
are just some of the many questions you may be asking yourself about
Wi-Fi
going forwards. From
a
technical point of view, this is what's needed for a good Wi-Fi
infrastructure:
Not an absolute requirement, but the PoE feature makes the system more manageable by allowing for remote reboot of the AP, and the VLAN capability allows for the support of multiple services on a single LAN cable to the room. So
now
you know why some CIO's can't sleep at night. Wi-Fi is a four-letter
word. ©
Terence Ronson |
Contact:
Terence Ronson |