Not too much in the hospitality industry is considered “recession proof,” but customers’ demands will never weaken, no matter how bad the economy gets.
In fact, the demand for a solid, secure Internet connection throughout the hotel continues on a steep incline.
Guests’ video streaming and downloading have hotels scrambling to offer an adequate amount of bandwidth.
“Broadband has gone from nice to have to a critical amenity,” said J.P. Hebert, VP of business development for Elfiq. “Considering your business traveler, Internet access is equally as important as hot water and bed sheets.”
In fact, InterContinental Hotels Group has gone as far as creating new specifications for its properties, demanding they boost bandwidth coming into the building.
“IHG requires a T1 line and an additional 6 megs of service, which is a big step forward,” said Matt Koch, VP of hospitality operations for EthoStream. “It’s the first time a brand has required two separate connections so if one goes down you’re not left without Internet.”
As critical as a solid Internet connection is to your guest in the room, it also can make or break group business at your hotel.
“If you have meeting space, you need to be able to deliver bandwidth, otherwise you won’t get the contracts,” Hebert said.
Also, with the increased popularity of smartphones, a wireless connection is even more important. Many popular phones will use a WiFi network faster than on the traditional cellular network.
“A fair amount of hotel venues do not have good wireless coverage,” said Jon Davis, VP of business development for ExteNet systems.
ExteNet recently employed a distributed antenna systems network in Chicago’s Trump Tower, placing small probes throughout the building’s HVAC ducts to create an efficient network and boost signal strength.
Balancing adds bandwidth for lower cost
A less expensive way to increase bandwidth at a hotel without tearing apart walls or installing new wire is gaining popularity.
Load balancing allows hoteliers to route multiple incoming sources of bandwidth together and distribute it throughout the hotel as one source. Often, hotels choose to monitor and manage the bandwidth traffic distribution, capping certain sources and withholding megs for critical users.
“For $100 a month you can bring in 25 megs through cable; for another $100 a month you could bring in another cable with 25 megs; and for $40 a month you can add a business-class DSL line,” said Travis Durick, network engineer at Peplink. “In total you’ve got more than 50 megs of bandwidth.”
“You can bring a load balancer in, combine that with low-cost carriers, and without breaking the bank you can be delivering 100 megabytes per second,” said J.P. Hebert, VP of business development for Elfiq. “For a few hundred bucks a month—combine a couple T1 lines and a cable modem—and your guests are living the life.”
Hebert said he can tell immediately—as soon as he signs on to the Internet—whether a hotel has gone through some type of upgrade to its high-speed Internet offering.
A load balancer allows all the multiple sources to be converged and distributed to back-of-house servers, meeting space and guestrooms.
Advanced load balancers allow bandwidth to be capped, preventing a single guest from monopolizing all of a hotels bandwidth, slowing surfing speeds for others.
“If a guest is bored and wants to go download a movie on Bitorrent, that happens every hour of every day,” Hebert said. “Those guys you want to cap because it’s clearly not critical traffic.”
Monitoring which guest or which area of the hotel doesn’t require a full-time staffer. In fact, most load balancers can be pre-programmed and set to determine critical or non-critical usage.
“It’s a pretty automated process,” Durick said. “You don’t have to manage anything. You just set it and forget it.”
