Monscierge Blog

The Importance of Bandwidth

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,


Showing Off Your Property Features

Whether showing property amenities or talking about your history, Monscierge’s property features app lets you configure your look and feel. The Monscierge Experience Engine manages your property features through an easy-to-use web control panel. You can add title, description, operating hours, contact details, and media content. You can have as many features as you’d like and even group or categorize listings.   You can even select from one of several layouts that provide a visual focus on different content. Want to display a large image? We have a layout for that. You can assign a specific layout to each of your property features to highlight the focus and content. You can update the platform in real-time. Need to fix a typo or update your property images? You can update using the web-based management tool and make your changes instantly and have the changes seen across guest TVs and the rest of the platform in seconds. Many of our clients leverage multiple products like Connect Lobby and Apple TV for Hospitality, and everything is updated instantly and from a single control panel.


What Hotels Forget About the Guest Experience

Recently, we found a hotel that told us, “we don’t do hospitality.” Were they trying to create a spin on guest expectations? Was it a casual lead-in to a bolder claim like “we are hospitality”? Nope, it was a solid and straightforward answer. They didn’t care about hospitality. For some, hospitality doesn’t come naturally, it’s a purely business transaction. For others, it’s a way of life. It’s not to say that business isn’t involved; you have to keep the lights on after all. What many properties forget about the guest experience is it’s a two-way street. Every guest interaction creates a butterfly effect that can directly change the property. A single bad review can lower a rating, leading to a lower search ranking, which leads to decreased bookings. Hospitality is truly about making a guest feel welcome. It’s connecting early on, answering questions promptly, ascertaining what type of stay the guest wants, and ensuring they have a positive stay. Today looks much different than even two years ago. Costs are up, labor is often a challenge, and overall, travel has seen incredible ups and downs over the past year. Understanding your business and expenses is necessary, but it’s not everything


Your Own Connected Room

It’s time for your own connected room. As the award-winning best in-room TV solution for 2020 and 2021, Monscierge offers the industry-leading personalized in-room experience. Monscierge’s Apple TV for Hospitality provides a complete guest experience that helps elevate your property. Reduce Your Costs Reduce or even cut your recurring monthly satellite or cable — plus no need for commercial TVs. Maximize Staffing Reduces the time your staff needs to answer guest questions, handle on-site content, and manage technology. Simple Installation Simple installation and configuration. Typically, up and running within hours. Support Our team is available for any questions or support. Monscierge’s Apple TV for Hospitality was awarded 2020 and 2021 Best In-Room Hospitality TV Solution. Supported by customer success service and support to ensure your property is always amazing. Our platform includes: Hotel Info Showcase photos and descriptions of property services and amenities. Recommendations Curated local restaurants and activities. Events Highlight on or off-site events. Great for weddings and corporate events. Channel Guide Delivers program descriptions, schedules & simple channel tuning. Streaming Provides streaming access to Netflix, YouTube, Disney+, Pandora, and more. Fitness and Gaming on Demand On-demand, in-room workout, and games. Real-Time Content Management Manage your content from the


FOMO is Real

FOMO is real. Your property is under review every day. So it’s part of the job to maintain consistently high standards. The minute you lose focus on the guest experience, it’s the minute someone looks at another property. The marketplace is crowded. Whether you’re a hotel or a vacation rental, you’ve got some tough competition with few exceptions. How do you cut through the noise? How do you differentiate yourself? When properties highlight their technology amongst their amenities, they are instantly seen as more progressive and likely modern. With the enhanced listing, they’re able to increase their bookings, which translates into increased revenue. But technology is only valuable if it’s doing something like providing in-room hospitality TV, digital signage, or offering communication with your guests. Technology should always enhance the guest experience and align with excellent customer service. The question remains, how are you differentiating your property? Are you missing out on guests because you don’t have what your competitor does?