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Today’s hotel guests not only want WiFi access during their stay, but they expect it to be free and of good quality. But hoteliers need not fear, as the return on investment will come quickly. Ben Walker reports


F


ree internet access should be a basic human right, an academic study from the University of Birmingham said this


month (November 2019). The United Nations agrees and so do most hoteliers. “It really is one of the most basic services a hotel should be including in their rate,” says Olivia Byrne, com- pany director, Eccleston Square hotel, London. “WiFi used to be a commodity that many hoteliers charged for as an extra service. How- ever, now guests expect WiFi to be free of charge and of good quality, almost like another utility such as hot water,” adds Jane Pendle- bury, chief executive, HOSPA.


The acceleration of consumer technology means hoteliers have a job to at least keep up with the facilities many travellers have at home. UK households are upgrading to faster broadband and using more data, says Ofcom. The number of superfast fibre-to-the-cabinet connections overtook standard broadband connections for the first time in 2018, and superfast connections accounted for 59% of all fixed broadband lines at the end of 2018. People are using more data, with 240GB on average each month per fixed broadband connection and 2.9GB on each mobile data connection. This is driven by the increased use of subscription video-on-demand ser- vices such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Average residential download speed increased by 18% to 54.2Mbit/s. Guests will expect at least the same speeds when away.


“Offering guests WiFi provides hotels with the opportunity to capture guest details and market to them while at the


hotel, as well as afterwards” Sagi Saltoun, Cardonet


www.thecaterer.com


NEXT GENERATION WIFI Hoteliers should be upgrading their WiFi net- work infrastructure every four to five years. Next generation WiFi 6 is arriving just in time to keep pace with ever-higher definition video content. WiFi 6’s priority is to enable much better performance in crowded environments with lots of wireless devices, such as hotels and event venues. WiFi 6 will replace the previous network, WiFi 5, delivering speeds up to 37% faster, greater connection strength, a wider spectrum of channels to operate in, and simultaneous streams. “This is a very important development for our market since guests in hotels have multi- ple active devices and operate multiple concur- rent streams,” says Anantha Narayanan, chief technology officer, Quadriga Systems. “The adoption or upgrade to WiFi 6 will bring more room for each connection, allowing more devices to connect with less loss of bandwidth. With the Internet of Things (IoT) trending slowly, there is now a significant futureproof- ing opportunity with the upgrade to WiFi 6.” The current high cost of WiFi 6 routers and


access points, however, will discourage most hoteliers from becoming early adopters, but prices will come down in time.


DIRECT MARKETING VIA WIFI Making the most of its direct marketing capa- bilities is an excellent way to defray some of WiFi’s costs. Sagi Saltoun, managing director at Cardonet, says: “Offering guests WiFi pro- vides hotels with the opportunity to capture guest details and market to them while at the hotel, as well as afterwards. Special offers for


Technology Prospectus 2020 | 33





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