Hospitality connectivity in focus

The hospitality industry is under increasing pressure. Hotels are at the heart of this: customers want seamless connectivity to enable the streaming services they receive at home, but this can be expensive and technically challenging. Even so, hotels are starting to invest as they strive to stay ahead in a highly competitive environment fuelled by review sites such as Trip Advisor.

And although super-fast connectivity for customers doesn’t provide a direct revenue stream, the applications it enables are also cutting costs and driving efficiencies behind the scenes. But Wi-Fi is often not enough and many hotels are adding cellular connectivity through small cells to ensure coverage.

Lightning-fast connectivity is essential to the functioning of a modern hotel, says Carla Milovanov, SVP, digital and technology, Accor Europe and Northern Europe. While the cost of connectivity has decreased over recent years, the demands on services are greater than ever before, she says. “Two years ago, fibre connectivity of 100Mbps was breaking new ground, but today most hotels are looking at a minimum of 1Gbps to provide guests with the experience they expect.”