Certainly one of the most important requests for today’s savvy travellers and hotel guests today has to be Wi-Fi. Good, uninterrupted Wi-Fi. If you’re a hotel manager, you’re likely to be aware of the potential security risks faced when considering a hotel Wi-Fi network.
Ensuring you make the right choices for Wi-Fi is not the minefield you might think it is. Talking to a dedicated internet provider, you can be reassured that you’ll receive the guidance and support to keep everyone connected. Here’s a quick reference checklist that might come in handy!
Room for everyone – choose enough bandwidth
No matter what the size of your hotel, you need to make sure that you opt for the right amount of bandwidth. It’ll have to be shared by all of your guests, so make sure you have enough to go round. (If you need help calculating what will be the right amount for your hotel’s requirements just give us a call on 0808 2819 500).
Focus on how many devices your guests will need
Guests can have more than one device – sometimes even several. So it’s important that you work out how many devices are likely to be using the network at one time. By dividing the bandwidth by the number of people, you’ll be able to work out the bandwidth allocation per device. You’ll also be able to assess how many access points you’ll need for each area of your hotel – particularly important if you have conference facilities.
Do I need hotspots – when are they handy?
These are great for your guests to connect to while they’re at your venue. If your hotel hosts conferences, meetings or business events, your guests will certainly appreciate being able to get online during registration, breakouts or breaks. You can work out how much connection capacity you need for each hotspot by multiplying the number of access points by the number of connections supported.
Personally yours – make broadband convenient for your business guests
If you can, it’s well worth ensuring that you have a dedicated connection just for your business guests. This way the bandwidth is solely for them, plus they won’t need to compete with other guests in the hotel.
Check your broadband is working
The last thing your guests want is to discover that the Wi-Fi isn’t working. It’s a good idea to check that each of your networks is working by checking on a mobile phone. It also gives you the opportunity to solve any issues quickly. Having on-site tech support means that you can deal with any situations directly.
Safety first – is your network safe?
We all know the issues faced with hacking and security breaches. It’s vital that you make sure your Wi-Fi network is secure and PCI compliant. This means you’ll need to protect any card information taken during a transaction at the hotel. Ensure all your software is up to date, and that your internet vendor has preventative software such as malware and Trojan on all of your networks. It’s a public network after all! Therefore, it makes sense that your network is protected at all times. A reminder to your guests to follow safe internet procedures won’t go amiss either.
If you’d like to talk to us about any of our Hospitality Wifi Solutions ‘Hotspot in a Box’, ‘Public Access Wi-fi’ ‘Live Events & Awards’ or ‘IPTV In Room Guest Entertainment’ or a tailor-made solution, just give us a call on +44 (0)808 2810 500.