In our hyper-connected 24-7 world, most of us regard being able to go online as a non-negotiable essential and something that we just can’t live without.
This means we want, nay, expect hotels to give us reliable, fast and easy to connect access in both public areas and private bedrooms.
NB: This is a viewpoint from Shane Doyle, IT director for Jurys Inn and an advisory board member for Hospitality Technology Europe (HTE).
While people travelling for business can empathise with the need to be constantly connected to the office, a recent American Express survey found that 83% of holidaymakers expect to stay digitally connected during their break.
A huge 64% of those were expecting to check their work email daily while on leave.
With such arresting figures it’s no surprise that more and more hoteliers are waking up to the fact that having subpar wifi not only disappoints guests, but also results in a loss of bookings.
This certainly wasn’t always the case and over the past decade the hotel industry has gone through a revolution with various stages of what’s acceptable to guests when it comes to their Internet connectivity.
First it was kiosks in the lobby before progressing to wifi in just public areas and then cabled connections in the bedrooms. Then it was wifi in bedrooms, followed by ensuring that you had very good wifi in all bedrooms that was suitable for smart phones and tablets.
With more and more travellers equipped with multiple devices, hotels are constantly on the back foot to increase their bandwidth to ensure people stay connected and can stream content via more than one piece of technology.
As we move into 2014, wifi networks are growing from being just an internet access service for guests to be the main communications platform for the Hotel.
Gradually hoteliers are using it for additional services like building management systems, tablets for housekeepers, restaurant ordering systems, TV content and more.
Basic guest landing pages for connecting to the internet are also being enriched to offer services such as room service ordering, virtual concierges, guest feedback and express checkout.
Competing voices continue to collide on the "to charge or not to charge" for wifi debate, with many groups opting to give basic internet free and charging for premium services and others opting to give it away completely for free.
A recent survey of 53,000 hotel guests by Forrester Research found wifi access ranked higher than any other extras including complimentary breakfast and free parking.
Forester also reported that "less than half of customers say guest wireless service is an easy service to use" which is something that will also need to be addressed moving forward.
The question is, however: are you moving forward?
NB: This is a viewpoint from Shane Doyle, IT director for Jurys Inn and an advisory board member for Hospitality Technology Europe (HTE).
NB2: HTE takes place on the February 4-5 2014 at Earl’s Court in London. More information and registration.
NB3:Family hotel wifi image via Shutterstock.