Today’s visitors demand connectivity. Whether it’s the family in town for vacation or a business traveler just passing through, the proliferation of mobile devices necessitates a strong wifi connection.
First, as a background, most small to mid-size hotels utilize a single connection into the hotel distributed across the guests. A 150 Mbps connection divided by 100 rooms is 1.5 Mbps. Add internal staff use, degradation from wifi splitters and distance, and the overall connection speed drops even more. But hotel wifi doesn’t need to be bad.
Complimentary versus premium wifi is still a contentious issue, with most complimentary services offer between 3-8 Mbps download speed. Premium offerings range from 10-30 Mbps but typically at the cost of $15.00 per day. While it’s potentially significant extra revenue for the property, it does nothing for the guest experience. Connecting premium services as a freebie for loyalty members or direct bookings is one potential workaround.
With price drops in fiber and the growing adoption of satellite Internet, connection speeds no longer are hampered by the lack of infrastructure seen in the early 2000s.
The gold standard is that every guest should have a consistent minimum of 5-7 Mbps connection speed to their devices, whether it’s their mobile phone, laptop, or tablet they’ve brought with them. Internal tools and products like Apple TV for Hospitality can utilize connections with a dedicated 3-5 Mbps minimum.
Whether your property is a small bed and breakfast, a thousand-room resort, or somewhere in-between, there’s plenty of options worldwide for making network upgrades and implementing excellent new standards. By creating great connections, you can help make guests for life.