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INDUSTRY WATCH
every family member carries his/her mobile
devices for personal entertainment as well.
And when they arrive at a hospitality venue,
they demand to connect to everything all
the time, making it essential for the hotel to
provide a memorable guest Wi-Fi experience.
Guests expect always-on Wi-Fi to find in-
venue activities, access self-service apps and
stream content without delay. This mobility
has created a need for hotels to engage
guests through smartphone apps and
opened the door to adding more context-
aware communications. Advances in
location technologies now also allow
venues to customise the guest experience
based on who and where they are,
for example, turn-by-turn navigation
within a mobile app or location-based
notifications to a guest on the property.
• Increased need for secure networks,
as more and more data and users flow
through the network.
• Increased demand for high-speed reliable
ADVANCED ANALYTICS/BIG
DATA AND THE INTERNET
OF THINGS (IOT) ARE TWO
TECHNOLOGIES THAT WILL
BE KEY IN SHAPING THE
FUTURE OF THE INDUSTRY.
untether their front-desk staff so they can
assist guests anywhere on the property.
Wi-Fi for high-bandwidth streaming, as
guests bring their own devices and content.
What IT trends are currently
influencing the hospitality sector?
What technologies are hotel
operators looking at? Do you have any tips to help
IT managers and CIOs build
a competitive hospitality
infrastructure?
The following are some of the trends
we have been seeing in the regional
hospitality sector: When building a competitive hospitality
infrastructure, the CIO should keep the
following points in mind:
• Wi-Fi standards and hardware/
hardware placement: There are now
indoor and outdoor 802.11ac APs that
allow for high-bandwidth streaming from
guests’ mobile devices throughout the
property (for both .n and .ac supported
devices), as opposed to containing wired/
wireless connections to individual hotel
rooms. For example, for guests this might
enable streaming high-bandwidth movies
and music applications in outdoor pool
areas and for hotels this could mean
running high-resolution IP cameras and
digital signage over Wi-Fi as well.
• Context-based engagement: The
increased amount of data that is
available on the Wi-Fi network has • Guest satisfaction: Every guest is a
public reviewer (whether it is through
travel review sites or personal social
media channels), so ensuring that they
have a good experience is paramount to
increasing loyalty and rebooking. While
personal interactions with staff can
certainly make an experience memorable,
improving technology-related offerings
and amenities (Wi-Fi, mobile apps, etc)
is a surefire way to reach and meet the
expectations of all guests.
• Mobile engagement opportunities:
Increasingly, hotels are looking for
additional ways to engage their tech-savvy
guests during their stay. By providing
guests in-app tools, such as indoor maps
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and wayfinding features, hotels let
guests easily find what they’re looking
for and self-service from their mobile
devices without delay.
New revenue channels: Mobile
engagement solutions can also be
used to alert guests to in-house
restaurants or other location-based
services to increase share of ‘wallet’
and reduce guest abandonment
during their stay.
Improved operations: Hotels that
upgrade their Wi-Fi to handle high-
bandwidth applications can run
mobile point of sale and property
management system applications
that decrease guest response times
and enable hotel staff to service
guests anywhere on the property.
Onsite physical security: Hotels
that upgrade their Wi-Fi to handle
newer, high-resolution IP surveillance
cameras can further protect guests,
proprietary goods and associates as
hundreds of individuals enter and exit
the venue daily.
Network security: Hotels that invest
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