Not all WiFi is created equal – what’s the difference between smart WiFi and everything else? Are you missing out?
WiFi is a given in the business world these days. If you have customers visiting your place of business, they likely expect to have some sort of free WiFi option available to them.
Failing to provide a user-friendly, fast connecting and reliable source of WiFi for a hotel’s guests is basically taken an insult. Even outside the hospitality industry, if a business expects guests to spend time on their premises, they better have WiFi available to them.
In fact, according to a J.D. Power survey, WiFi is among the top three amenities that guests expect when staying at a hotel. In addition to breakfast and parking, WiFi is top of the list for your guests.
Without a complimentary WiFi option, guests are often left less than happy. Dissatisfied guests are more likely to complain, post bad reviews online, spread their opinion via word of mouth, and look for a different hotel to stay at the next time they are traveling.
That’s why Wifi is so important – however, not just any WiFi solution will do.
What Is “Smart” WiFi And Why Is It Important?
There’s a big difference between your garden variety WiFi and the “smart” version of it. In general? Smart WiFi is strategically designed and implemented, is equipped with a range of features to ensure it meets modern benchmarks of quality of service, and simply does its job better than the standard alternative
Think of it this way – you know you need WiFi; your guests expect it. Which of the following two options seems preferable to you:
- You Google “WiFi” and sign up for the very first service you can, hoping it’s what you (and more importantly, your guests) are looking for.
- You work with an experienced, knowledgeable IT company to build a WiFi solution that fits the particulars of your hotel and the expectations of your guests.
The choice is obvious, right?
What Are The Top 4 Features Of Smart WiFi?
A Smart WiFi solution offers a comprehensive range of benefits and solutions, including:
- Managed and Scalable WiFi Infrastructure
Instead of just setting up a few routers and hoping for the best, a smart WiFi solution ensures that the specific needs of the business (down to the different areas and demand on the solution) are taken into account.Consider this – what area in the hotel needs the strongest WiFi signal? The upper floors? The pool? Or the lobby?
While it could vary location to location, the likely answer is the lobby. The combination of arriving and departing guests, as well as those only there for conferences and meetings, makes the lobby the busiest hub in the whole building.
A smart WiFi solution would allow you to scale the connectivity and available speed based on the demand and area. The lobby can be configured to have the greatest availability and bandwidth, whereas the penthouse, gym, and other less populated areas can be scaled back to ensure a better use of your available resources.
- On-Demand Support For Special Events
Beyond the many guests staying at the hotel at any given time, you also need to consider the busier times when hosting a conference, convention, or another special event.Again, depending on the number of vendors, how many attendees are expected, and any other case-by-case specifics, you may need additional routers set-up, new networks created and named specifically for the event, and more.
An IT company offering a smart WiFi solution will be able to work with you on each event like a specific project as need be, scaling your available WiFi services to perfectly meet the needs of everyone under your roof.
- Enterprise-Class Security High traffic areas like hotels, airports, and convention centres are popular among cybercriminals these days. It’s in these locations that people are most likely to connect to an unsecured WiFi network simply because it’s available.
By creating a dummy network with a name that’s similar to that of the hotel’s, or the event’s official WiFi, cybercriminals can connect to unsuspecting user’s devices, compromise their accounts, and steal valuable personal information.
A key aspect of smart WiFi is that it keeps your guests and attendees safe via a range of industry-standard security features, such as password protection and robust encryption.
- Regular Hardware Refreshes
It’s unusually common for businesses in the hospitality industry to rely on technology that’s long been out of date. Especially when it comes to WiFi, people will often assume that one router is as good as the next – this simply isn’t true.A core part of smart WiFi is ensuring the hardware is continually updated on a regular basis to ensure a high-quality connection and low risk of failure.
You and your guests deserve a WiFi solution that’s smart – one that’s easy to connect to keeps vital information secure and fits the needs of the hotel.
Like this article? Check out Intel Chip Vulnerabilities: What We Know So Far! Does Your IT Company Understand How The Oil & Gas Industry Operates? or The 10 Most Secure & Insecure Airports For WiFi In The United States to learn more.