Synopsis: To
remain competitive, hotels in the region need to leverage a smarter,
adaptive network infrastructure that delivers stable, simple, smart,
secure Wi-Fi access to thousands of devices at a time, supports mobile
collaboration for staff, and enables personalized and location-based
mobile engagement for guests.
Author: Graeme Kane, Sales Manager, Hospitality at Aruba Networks
The hospitality sector
in the Middle East is booming. Recent industry reports about the
hospitality industry in the Middle East have indicated that Dubai plans
to almost double the number of hotel rooms by 2020, Saudi Arabia’s
hospitality sector is growing at an annual rate over 8.5 percent with
155 new hotels expected to open the Kingdom during 2014-2015 and the
Middle East is outstripping Europe in building big hotels. Rapid
advancement of mobile computing in the Middle East is giving hoteliers
the opportunity to create additional value for their guests and lower
operational costs by implementing mobile technology solutions. There is
rapid increase in smartphone usage in the Middle East with recent IDC
research pointing to the fact that the smartphone percentage share of
the overall handset market in countries like UAE, Saudi and Kuwait
exceeds 75%[1]. It is thus surprising that most hoteliers’ plans to implement mobile enablement solutions are rambling.
Changing Expectations
A revolution has taken
place, from the days when we had one Ethernet port in the room with the
hotels offering guests a wired connection, or a dedicated hotel
business centre often found in the lobby. A couple years ago, the
typical traveller would have carried only a laptop and a phone. With the
mass adoption of smart phones and tablets in the last 3 years
travellers now use their devices anytime and anywhere – for business,
personal entertainment, social media engagement and other such purposes.
And when they arrive at a hotel, they expect to connect to everything
all the time. Guests now demand always-on Wi-Fi across the hotel
complex, access to self-service apps and content streaming without
delay.
This mobility
revolution has created a need for hotels to engage guests through
smartphone apps and untether their front-desk staff so they can assist
guests anywhere on the property. Essentially, providing a memorable
guest Wi-Fi experience is now a fundamental part of customer
satisfaction.
There is clear
evidence of the change in guests' mentality. A recently conducted survey
by Aruba Networks found that with respect to hospitality, #GenMobile, a
term coined for the growing segment of people for whom smartphones is
now an integral part of their personal and professional lives, displayed
some interesting characteristics. For example, 65% of travellers have
three or more devices and 94% cite Wi-Fi as the most important amenity.
The survey also found that 77% of #GenMobile travellers reference
reviews before choosing a hotel and 36% will hesitate to rebook after a
poor Wi-Fi experience
Business travellers
now require the ability to establish VPN connections to their
headquarters while leisure travellers feel the constant need to update
their online photo albums. These requirements demand for broadband
internet speeds to be delivered over Wi-Fi networks.
Evolving with the Needs of the Modern Traveller
To remain competitive,
hotels need to leverage a smarter, adaptive network infrastructure that
delivers stable, simple, smart, secure Wi-Fi access to thousands of
devices at a time, supports mobile collaboration for staff, and enables
personalized and location-based mobile engagement for guests. There are
therefore a number of aspects that must be looked into and addressed in
order to achieve this which include:
Wi-Fi standards and hardware placement: With
the smartphone explosion and the growing demand for media-rich content,
older 802.11n wireless enterprise networks will no longer be capable of
meeting user expectations. To cater to these demands and future-proof
their investments, hotels must adopt the latest 802.11ac standard which
provides better signal and coverage at a lower cost than its
predecessors.
Instead of limiting
wired/wireless connections to individual rooms, hotels can dramatically
scale their Wi-Fi coverage with indoor and outdoor 802.11ac Access
Points (APs) that allow for high-bandwidth streaming from guests’ mobile
devices throughout the property. These APs also extend support to older
802.11n devices. This opens up new possibilities such as allowing
guests to streaming high-bandwidth movies and music applications at the
outdoor pool areas and hotels running high-resolution IP cameras and
digital signage over Wi-Fi as well.
Automatic assignment of devices to access points: Unpredictable
peaks in traffic shouldn’t slow down the Wi-Fi network for guests and
staff. The deployed solution should ensure that every device connects to
the best-performing AP on the network - no matter how crowded it gets
and no matter where a guest is within the venue i.e. indoors or
outdoors. If a next-generation mobility firewall is deployed, the
solution should easily integrate with this as it will allow for the
solution to prioritize the most important work apps, as well as
delay-sensitive voice and video surveillance traffic.
Ease of logging in: Before
checking out the pool or entertainment, the first thing the modern
traveller wants to access is the hotel's Wi-Fi network. It is therefore
imperative to make it easy for them to self-register for secure Wi-Fi
access without IT assistance or dealing with multiple login screens. The
solution should integrate with the existing property management system
and allow the hotel to create custom-branded registration portals and
browser pages that display venue ads and special promotions.
Context-Based Engagement: Once
the hotel has deployed a reliable high speed Wi-Fi network, it can then
look at leveraging this as a tool to enhance the guests' experience.
The increased amount of data that is readily available on the Wi-Fi
network has opened the door to creating more context-aware
communications. Advances in location related technologies now allow
venues to customize the guest experience based on who and where they
are. For example, turn-by-turn navigation within a mobile app.
Hotels continue to use
traditional static promotional signage. But this doesn’t always reach
guests and often doesn’t relate to them. Location-aware technology can
also be used to push out relevant and timely offers to guests' mobile
devices based on where they are on the venue’s property. Hotels, resorts
and casinos can now reward loyal guests by sending them personalized
push-notifications that contain exclusive offers on in-house services or
events.
By delivering stable,
simple, smart and secure Wi-Fi to guests and then leveraging this
network as a platform for innovation, hotels can set themselves apart in
this highly competitive market. Done right, guests might use the very
network developed for their satisfaction to post glowing reviews about
the hotel and the service they received!
