IN ASSOCIATION WITH
WIFI: AS VITAL AS WATER
Hospa chief executive Carl Weldon explains why hotels should consider Wi-Fi to be as vital as water.
“No guest-facing technology in a hotel today, other than TV, can be experienced fully without decent Wi-Fi. As a result, poor Wi-Fi now affects business. “However, there is a huge
amount of poorly purchased and poorly installed Wi-Fi in UK hotels due to a lack of technical
understanding and too much focus on price. “Bad free Wi-Fi is like a bad free
cup of coffee at the end of a meal – it spoils the whole experience and memory of it. Complaints and dissatisfaction quickly flow when guests have a poor experience. Indeed, I am aware of travellers who have checked out of hotels with poor Wi-Fi. “We all know how many devices
we carry and we all know we want to be connected all the time. But
what most people don’t know is how complex a property-wide, quality, secure wireless network is. Hoteliers need to choose a proven manufacturer and a proven partner. “That network is going to be needed for an ever-increasing array of services as both guest and property systems move to the cloud and everyone and everything is connected. Hotels should focus more on quality than on price. In the long run, a quality solution from a quality provider
will prove to be much better value. You can put bandwidth in this category too. “For example, Marriott has
a very high, very strict set of standards, which means its hotels tend to seem expensive. But guest satisfaction is proven to be higher in these hotels. Even the Ritz has free Wi-Fi these days.” For more hospitality technology advice, visit the Hospace Hub at Hotelympia 2016
www.hotelympia.com
“Why have expensive sports or movie channels in your hotel if the guest can already access that content?” Gary Holmes
At The Caterer Summit 2015, Weldon pointed to the work done at the San Francisco 49ers’ stadium in the USA, where Venue- Next, working on Aruba technology, has brought in a $1.2m a season increase in food and bev- erage revenues. Similarly, Triple Jump has saved about £20,000 a match at Twickenham by having the right products in the right place at the right time. Digital tabletops are on the agenda. These digital menus can recommend dishes and take the customer’s order. Sim- ilar tabletop ordering is already used at concept venues, such as Oriental fusion restaurant Inamo in London. Meanwhile Mark Teasdale, chief
technology officer at hospitality tech sup- plier Acentic, whose clients include IHG and Hilton, predicts a massive growth in wearable technology. “The Apple Watch is going to be a game-changer,” he says. “We know that the way it works, with a tiny
antenna constantly looking for a signal, will make demands on the high-speed internet access [HSIA] infrastructure.”
In-room entertainment Few guests are now prepared to pay for pre- mium TV or movies on demand. Most are
happy to stream their own content – for instance, to send music or videos from their iPlayer app to a smart TV such as an Apple TV. “Guests want to access their own content at their convenience, streaming to or from a laptop or mobile device, or using a hotel TV with on-demand apps such as BBC iPlayer built-in,” says Gary Holmes, managing direc- tor of technology at Boxbuild, the design and fit-out company behind Bloc Hotels’ cutting- edge rooms. “Why have expensive sports or movie channels in your hotel if the guest can already access that content through an app on their mobile device?” However, Alison Dolan, deputy manag-
ing director of Sky Business, points out that if guests are forced to stream their own con- tent, that can put a greater strain on your Wi-Fi (see In-room entertainment trends panel). The critical point is that all in-room enter- tainment systems must be simple to use. Guests need to access TV content in a few easy clicks rather than a confusing set of pages.
And the fact that guests often travel with their own downloads to
watch from their own devices means hoteliers should think laterally to make
their service memorable. “Some 26% of people often find themselves without chargers or earpieces, so perhaps pro- vide disposable earpieces at a small fee, rather than charge for Wi-Fi access,” suggests Minall.
www.thecaterer.com
Technology Prospectus 2016 | 7
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