Holiday Inn Shows the Way Upgrades to In-house WiFi

30% of the global population consists of internet users¹. With a medium that has seen a growth of over 400 percent in the last decade, is it any surprise that the internet has come to play a central role in our lives? What's more, the market for internet enabled devices is slated to grow 50 percent in 2012². As the number of hotel guests with laptops and smart phones increase, fast WiFi is a necessity. Few people today can stay without visiting their Facebook and Twitter pages, or at least check e-mail while on vacation. Besides enabling them to stay in touch with their office and friends, WiFi allows a hotel to stay connected and communicate with their guests.

Holiday Inn Resort, Goa is a popular five star resort located on the pristine sands of Mobor. The hotel is set in expansive tropical gardens and has been built in traditional grandeur, designed to blend colonial extravagance with exotic surroundings. It boasts facilities that attract not only holiday tourists, but business travelers alike.

To meet guests' demand for high quality and fast internet, Holiday Inn Resorts tied up with a leading provider to deliver WiFi to their 200+ rooms spread over 23 acres. However, signal strength and support were an issue and the WiFi service was inconsistent. This led to guests being inconvenienced.

Holiday Inn Resorts, Goa has always valued the role of technology and employed it to differentiate its services from competition. Says Loretta Vaz, Director Business Development at Holiday Inn, Goa, "We value our guests tremendously, and leverage technology to serve them better and faster. In this day and age when guests want permanent internet connectivity, it is of prime importance for us to offer fast and reliable WiFi to suit their needs. When WiFi service existing at the time was proving to be inconsistent and unreliable, we turned to IDS NEXT – our one stop shop for hospitality technology."

IDS NEXT conducted a Technology Audit at Holiday Inn Resort, and found that there was tremendous scope to improve the existing WiFi facility and develop it as a revenue generating avenue. It was suggested that Holiday Inn manages their WiFi in-house, allowing the resort's IT team to monitor and maintain the infrastructure and fix issues faster. The resort was also advised to replace their hardware with one meant specifically for outdoor purposes. This enhanced durability and ensured that the resort's WiFi was always up and functioning reliably.

Advantages of in-house WiFi

• Reduced external dependencies
• Cost efficient
• Additional revenue channel

Holiday Inn Resorts, Goa took the recommendations of the technology audit a step further and also integrated their WiFi with their hotel ERP. A controller and an internet authentication system were installed and the WiFi was integrated into the hotel ERP using a simple interface. The ERP interface meant that the cost of the internet usage was automatically posted to the guest's account and did not require any manual data entry.

Holiday Inn Resorts has been using their in-house maintained WiFi for over six months. It is up and running 95% of the time and this has resulted in higher guest satisfaction, but most importantly, has helped revenues climb. Says Loretta Vaz, Director Business Development at Holiday Inn Resorts, Goa, "In another six months our WiFi installation will bring in ROI and we absolutely think the decision to bring it in-house was worth the effort. The transition was easy thanks to the expert advice from IDS NEXT. The team surveyed the property, helped us reduce our internet access points and also helped us source the specialized hardware we needed. We now have a highly efficient and reliable WiFi service."

Sources:
¹Internet World Stats (http://www.internetworldstats.com)
²IHS iSuppli Market Intelligence (http://www.isuppli.com/)