By Stephanie Bergeron Kinch, Wi-Fi NOW Staff Writer
Most people have experienced it: You get to your hotel room, snap a photo, start uploading it and – oh no! – the Wi-Fi just doesn’t work. In a world where beaming down photos from the planet Mars is possible, why can’t hotels deliver great Wi-Fi?
“There’s not a lot of Wi-Fi designs being done in hotels,” said Mark Winter, CEO of inTechnology Distribution, at this year’s Wi-Fi NOW APAC Conference in Bangkok. Winter represented Wi-Fi planning solutions vendor Ekahau at Wi-Fi NOW APAC.
An exception to that rule is ONYX: Andreas Gruenert is Director of IT Infrastructure and Security at ONYX Hospitality Group, a hotel management company operating in the APAC region. ONYX’s 43 hotels range from mid-level to deluxe with varying guest demands at each location.
But one demand is the same across all brands and locations: Hotel guests expect reliable, fast Wi-Fi everywhere within the hotel.
The long & winding history of hotel Wi-Fi
When it comes to Wi-Fi, the past 13 years have been an interesting journey for ONYX. Gruenert explains it like this: Around 2003, ONYX started offering Wi-Fi for USD$10 per day and guests were happy to pay to for the service. In 2009, they started offered free Wi-Fi and guests were mostly satisfied if it worked somewhere in the hotel – like in the lobby or restaurant.
Today, expectations have skyrocketed and guests expect high-performance Wi-Fi for free. Even lack of coverage in the parking garage appears to be valid reason for complaints, says Andreas Gruenert. Today, a hotel without Wi-Fi is like a hotel without running water. And like plumbing, Wi-Fi is a cost that the hotel must cover.
“From 2013 onwards, Wi-Fi has been quite a big cost item,” says Gruenert. “Costs can amount to as much as USD$120 per room per year.”
Compounded challenges
Wi-Fi investments also don’t age well. Frequent equipment updates to match new Wi-Fi standards are necessary, and they can be hard to fit into the hotel industry’s complex business model.
Hotel buildings are typically owned by individuals while hotel management companies like ONYX provide services, develop operational standards, and deliver support on a contractual basis. Wi-Fi equipment is paid for by the hotel owner, who is nearly always looking for the lowest price.
There are also still multiple technology challenges, says Gruenert. Getting Wi-Fi roaming (handoff between access points) to work is not easy, and many guests still use legacy devices that complicate planning and hamper consistent network performance.
Often a Wi-Fi design must be completed before the building itself, he says. He also says that the most common connectivity problem for ONYX is disconnection of the Guest Wi-Fi Gateway from the ISP.
How can hotel operators deliver better Wi-Fi?
Gruenert says it is important that hotels understand guest expectations and that upgrades are budgeted for each year. This year ONYX is conducting a Wi-Fi audit using a system that equips hotel staff with automatic Wi-Fi monitoring software on their phones. In this way, the quality of the Wi-Fi network can be comprehensively mapped out for all areas of the hotel, he says.
“What we always try to do in hospitality is to look at what the customer wants. Our focus on creating the right customer experience applies as much to Wi-Fi as anything else,” Gruenert says.
Multiple ways to improve guest Wi-Fi
ONYX uses a range of tools and processes to keep their hotel Wi-Fi up to scratch. While signal heatmaps are useful, it is also critically important to measure the guest Wi-Fi experience over time in particular locations, Gruenert says.
Today, ONYX monitors critical Wi-Fi service KPIs as a function of time and location with a system developed by Sweden-based tech vendor AirMobile. This allows ONYX to monitor hotel Wi-Fi services from the guests point of view.
/Stephanie
We’re grateful to Andreas Gruenert and the ONYX Hospitality Group for speaking and sharing experiences at this year’s Wi-Fi NOW APAC conference & expo in Bangkok, Thailand. Click here for more on Wi-Fi NOW APAC.