MEMPHIS, Tennessee—Charging for some wireless Internet access at hotels is becoming easier for hoteliers as the service becomes more reliable and robust, according to panelists speaking on the “Putting technology in the comfort zone” general session during the recent Southern Lodging Summit at Memphis.
With many brands adopting a tiered approach that provides complimentary basic Wi-Fi access to guests, consumers are taking note, according to Dana Shefsky, director of digital product innovation for Hilton Worldwide Holdings.
“That’s what we heard from consumers—that Wi-Fi is expected like air nowadays,” Shefsky said. “We tagged that to booking direct, so customers that book direct with us can get that free Wi-Fi, and that really helped us sell it to our owners.”
However, owner representatives aren’t always on board with maintaining the updated technology needed for Wi-Fi access, according to Ron Hardin, VP of technology for Davidson Hotels & Resorts, an Atlanta-based hotel management company with 39 properties in its portfolio.
“It’s a constant struggle to keep explaining to hotel asset managers why they need to reinvest in something,” Hardin said. “Their timelines are different than ours. They think, ‘I just put in the system.’ No, that was five years ago. … They don’t get that four- to five-year technology cycle.”
Pay for performance
Mark Haley, managing partner of The Prism Partnership, disputed that free Wi-Fi leads to more direct reservation bookings and said there is one thing that all hotel operators must remember when it comes to Internet access.
“It becomes a problem if you charge for Wi-Fi and it’s not a great experience,” Haley said.
“The struggle is to make sure it works well,” Hardin added. “The usage patterns and the (number of) guest devices have jumped past the infrastructure, and it’s a real struggle to keep that infrastructure updated, keep the bandwidth levels up and try to stay ahead of that curve.”
Scott Boucher, director of operations at The Peabody Memphis, agreed. He said the hotel offers Internet access for a fee in part because it wants to recoup operational costs for the service. Guests don’t seem to mind paying for it, he said.
“As long as the Wi-Fi is actually working properly, it gets high speed, and we’re not having challenges with it, you’re really not getting that much pushback from (guests),” he said.
Wi-Fi-for-a-fee needs to have high performance, no circuit protocols and an easy logon process to be successful, according to Boucher. Haley said one sign-in for the duration of a guest’s stay is also important.
Hardin said the number of complaints from guests who have to pay for Internet access at Davidson’s full-service properties has eased as brands have introduced tiered Wi-Fi platforms in which the lowest tier is free.
“Most people can Web surf through email just fine (on the free tier), but they want premium service,” Hardin said. “So if you can offer both, which is the way most of the brands advocate doing that, then that kind of addresses the guest satisfaction issue.”
Beyond Wi-Fi
The panelists discussed a number of other tech-oriented issues, including what lies ahead for the discipline.
“Hospitality is kind of the last frontier,” Shefsky said. “The opportunities right now are kind of endless. A lot of it has to do with the proliferation of smartphones.
“We’re trying to take the friction out of travel, and people are expecting their smartphones to do that,” she added. “It also requires us to make changes to the way we do business, and change the way we think about the way we do business.”
Haley said one thing hoteliers must not be afraid of is failure.
“If it fails, fail fast,” he said. “Don’t lose too much on it. Move on to the next (idea). Take what you learned from it and maybe the next one the spaghetti sticks to the wall.”
There promises to be plenty of sticky ideas as creativity continues to flow into the hotel industry, panelists said.
“It’s going to be about technology that allows our customers to interact with our team members throughout the life of the stay,” Shefsky said. “We’ve tackled that in the pre-arrival experience, and now I think we’re going to move into the stay experience, enabling those communications. Our guests are just beginning to expect that digital interaction. If they want to talk to a person, then they’ll have that option.”
“Mobility, mobility, mobility,” Haley said. “If you are affiliated with a brand, then you need to push them to provide some leadership. Push the mobility game from your operators and force them to add value to that franchisee relationship by becoming a leader in that space. Leverage that brand because if you don’t, they’ll leverage you.”
The TV always will have a place in the hotel room, according to the speakers. Its purpose, however, will evolve into a personal entertainment device.
“One of the key technologies that’s really going to—even if the customer doesn’t think that they want it—lead to a much improved perception of their stay is that seamless integration of their device and the stuff that’s in the room,” Hardin said. “There’s a lot of barriers in that area still of content licensing, digital rights management, between the Apple world and Google world, the Windows world. All the pieces are there, but the universal availability and method use isn’t.
“It’s going to be only within a couple years that it’s going to be an expected de facto for a guest to be able to stream their content on the TV without having to jump through hoops,” he added.