oday, great Wi-Fi is seems to be more about just connecting devices,but actually it is about connecting people with your brand. People spend more than 50% of their time on Wi-Fi. Your guest network must be able to not only handle this growing traffic, but also to identify and engage your most loyal guests.A growing segment of hotel guests, called Silent Travellers by Skift , rely more on technology than human interaction and connecting with this group can be difficult. By leveraging the Wi-Fi, you not only add value to their stay, you open up countless doors for guest engagement.
1. Just offering Wi-Fi isn’t good enough, it has to be great
It used to be that hotel Wi-Fi was all about speeds and feeds. Local hotel IT managers solved slow Internet performance by throwing more bandwidth at the problem. Today, with the proliferation of mobile devices and bandwidth-hogging applications, hotels need to constantly upgrade their infrastructure to keep up with the voracious demand.At the same time, infrastructure needs (and therefore costs) have gone up, guest's willingness to pay for Wi-Fi has plummeted. According to Hotel Management, most business travellers would book directly if they got free Wi-Fi. Additionally, more than half of all travellers read online reviews before booking a stay. If your online reviews reflect any negativity towards your Wi-Fi, you are sure to lose some of those direct bookings and potentially loyal guests.
2. Bandwidth is just the beginning of great Wi-Fi
Having a big enough bandwidth pipe to support your guest Internet needs is important, but it’s really just the beginning of delivering great guest Wi-Fi. Hotels need to think beyond just a bigger pipe to solve their Wi-Fi performance issues.Throwing more bandwidth at the problem isn’t always the answer. In fact, many hotels have plenty of bandwidth. They just have no way of managing or even seeing how that bandwidth is utilised across the property.
3. Disparate systems and providers make Wi-Fi hard to manage
Property-level networking is a tricky business. Historically, guest Wi-Fi was something that was managed at the property level with local information technology or general managers selecting the hardware and service provider to manage the experience. This practice resulted in different experiences at each location within a brand. From inconsistent login pages and processes to varying prices, the guest Wi-Fi experience left a lot to be desired.A central authentication platform should make it easy to deliver high-performance Wi-Fi across all devices, locations, and providers. Dynamic authentication options, from short-form to Passpoint™ to social authentication, allow you to deliver a Wi-Fi experience that guest loves.A robust central authentication platform (like Eleven) streamlines the delivery of great guest Wi-Fi.
4. Wi-Fi is a commodity that’s hard to monetise
It’s important that we have started to shift the way we think about Wi-Fi. It’s no longer just an IT function; it is a true business asset. Investing in Wi-Fi should be a crucial part of your loyalty strategy. It’s important that you, your staff and meeting planners have control over the Internet service offered to various audiences, including hotel guests, conference attendees, and loyalty members. Not only is it valuable for guests to be able to choose their own plan, you can also recoup some of your network costs this way. In fact a recent study of ours showed that 17% of guests chose a higher tier of Internet service when given the option.
5. Managing guest Wi-Fi is too expensive
Delivering and maintaining a great guest Wi-Fi experience is an investment in guest loyalty, but it doesn’t have to be too expensive. In fact, this final hurdle isn’t really a hurdle after all. For the same cost as stocking your guest rooms with shampoo, you can deliver killer guest Wi-Fi. You won’t lose loyalty over some lousy shampoo, but you will over poor Wi-Fi.
overcome all the wi-fi hurdles in your hotel by just choosing a solution with https://www.activeprism.net/net4guest.html
