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Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Wireless Hotspots Vs Legacy Wireless Services: From a Hotel Guest’s Perspective

Internet connectivity is an inevitable part of today’s business travelling. For the hospitality business, hotel internet service is one of the most important factors that facilitate good customer experience. Guest satisfaction surveys show that around three-quarters of business travelers wouldn’t return to a hotel where they had an unsatisfactory internet experience. According to iPass Mobile Workforce Report, hotel wireless internet is just second to a comfortable bed when choosing an accommodation.

The hotel properties spend thousands of dollars to set up wireless internet infrastructure so that guests can have flawless internet service throughout their stay. However, often it’s been noticed that even after spending so much money, the guest satisfaction remains low because of sluggish and unsafe hotel internet service. To cope up with this, marketers are suggesting wireless hotspots as an alternative to legacy internet services. Let us consider some of the points that reveal how wireless hotspots help generate better business as compared to shared internet services:

Flexibility: Wireless services are no doubt offer flexibility to the user, but with a shared wireless connection, the guests can surf internet only within the hotel property. However, with a hotspot, the guests can roam freely anywhere they want, whether it’s the hotel room, conference hall, lobby, poolside or even outside the hotel property like malls and markets. Internet hotspots are small pocket-size devices that the guest can easily carry.

Security: Hotspots are certainly more secured as compared to a shared hotel internet service. In a shared network multiple users utilize the same connection and thus is less safe as compared to a hotspot where it depends upon the user to share the connection or not. Hotel guests, especially the business professionals, often demand for a secured internet service and here hotspot has a match to none. Hotspots have secured network encryption that minimizes the risk of hacking, data theft and unauthorized device access to a great extent.

Better Service: Most wireless internet hotspots let the users connect to both 3G and 4G networks. A high-speed connectivity is required especially during conferences and virtual meetings. Also because the connection is not shared with anyone, it offers better speed and saves the user from network drops and sluggish connectivity. The technology facilitates automatic network discovery and selection, with the ability to steer subscribers toward preferential Wi-Fi use.

Cost Saving: Hotel guests often prefer hotspots as it let them save a good amount on their connectivity costs. The users can connect up to 5 different devices at the price of one when they use a hotspot device. Moreover, the device’s flexibility to take it anywhere saves the hotel guests from paying expensive internet charges at different places.

According to a recent report, around 81% of the hotel guests reported having a bad experience with hotel wireless internet in the last one year. The research finding is a wake-up-call to hotels that guests’ expectations are changing and hotels must take necessary steps to meet the expectation of their consumers. As internet has become a need for today’s business travelers, most market experts are suggesting wireless internet hotspot as one of the most important tools to attract tech savvy business travelers and increase the guest retention rates.

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