Offering free WiFi comes at a cost to the hotelier, but so do all amenities like a swimming pool, water and heating. These costs are recouped in the cost in the room. In the hospitality industry businesses need to stay competitive. Consumers have come to expect free WiFi connections to be available wherever they go, be it in hotels, retailers or coffee shops.
Allowing your customers to connect their WiFi enabled devices (tablet, phone, laptop etc) to the internet with a frustration-free connection could boost your revenue and essentially pay for itself and here are a few reasons why.
The cost is minimal and can be absorbed into either the room rate or other forms of capital expenditure with the organisation. However the real cost is that of potentially not reaching maximum occupancy. While free WiFi can be seen as a cost, it is commonly established that giving guests the freedom to select your hotel is made much easier when you advertise a free WiFi service. Only a true WiFi hotspot can allow hoteliers to have a free WiFi service with total ease yet derive value from it in a number of different ways.
One common method is monetisation, however there is a fine line before advertising becomes a hindrance to the core free WiFi service that all hotels strive to provide. The delivery of a stable, reliable and accountable free WiFi service gives hotels the freedom to use a Hotspot that works for them and is the secret to success, as it can keep guests and hoteliers alike happy.
Customer demand
Technology is all around us, and the increase in WiFi-enabled gadgets will continue to rise. With one in three travellers admitting to specifically searching out a hotel to stay in that provides a good WiFi connection, can you afford not to?
Guests and visitors online commonly carry more than one WiFi enabled device. Addressing this need alone can be a challenging one that can have cost implications. The guest will demand the freedom to use more than one of their devices. The challenge appears when the Internet connectivity, usually broadband or fibre, is being dominated by a minority of guests (or even just one). A quality hotspot service can alleviate this issue using a matrix of controls to provide and manage a free WiFi service that ensures the guest user experience is a positive one.
With the plethora of different WiFi enabled devices carried, the need to adapt to the end users needs is paramount. A quality hotspot will give the guest the freedom to have a similar experience on any of their devices whether tablet or smartphone, Android to Apple. Familiarity and ease of use ensure customer demand is translated into a productive and pleasant part of their stay.
Marketing tool
Offering a competitive WiFi connection can sometimes be seen as a big upfront cost but one of the biggest advantages is being able to use it as a marketing tool for your hotel.
The migration from charging for WiFi, coupled with the ever decreasing WiFi revenue can be at times daunting for the FD or GM. However this should be seen as an opportunity to focus on the core product – namely occupancy. Free WiFi seen as a marketing tool can achieve just that.
Most hoteliers would agree that no two guests are alike. Giving choice in the form of product differentiation is a perfect way to provide guests with value and increase satisfaction levels. This can be adapted to how free WiFi is offered to guests. Having a customer login experience that is part of your guest journey can be integrated in a marketing centric manner. Allowing guests and visitors to login using their Social Media account can not only act as free marketing for your business but also be part of your bigger digital marketing plan, whilst delivering simple and reliable free WiFi to your guests.
A WiFi hotspot can provide you with valuable data about your customers. This amazing insight can be useful for your internal marketing both short and long term. With an ever growing audience of WiFi users at your establishment, this can be translated into an increasing amount of intelligence about your customers. Focusing on the right audience, your focus can be fine tuned into providing a better experience for your guests, giving them the right reasons to remain repeat customers as well as encouraging new value purchases enhancing the bottom line into a healthy margin. Gathering data can be quick and simple. For example, each customer can be prompted to fill in a few details before joining your network or you can even use it to pop up promotional offers in front of the customers eyes when you have their full attention.
Hotel reputation
The facilities hotels offer has an effect on the reputation of the hotel. Offering free WiFi means guests are more likely to leave positive reviews and recommend your hotel to others.
Some hotels are of the opinion if they offer free hotel internet then customers will stop buying in-room entertainment, or indeed that nothing should be considered free as they’re running a business. Hotels need to evaluate what market share they’re possibly losing by not offering the service and that choice depends on your brand and your typical customer or market share you have as to what strategy you employ.
One simple fact to leave you with: advertising your Free WiFi on the booking engines (tick box) gives you a wide audience, otherwise missed.
About the author
Bal Rana is the founder and Business Development Manager of Freedom Hotspot. Bal is a veteran in the IT industry with 18 years of experience. His passion for all things wireless and the desire to make technology accessible to everyone, led to the founding of Freedom Hotspot in 2003. Carrying the beliefs that WiFi Hotspot technology is ultimately in the business of connecting people in a way that is feasible and sustainable, Bal works tirelessly to provide a seamless solution.
