We recently read a blog post where the author was commenting on people’s ignorance with Wi-Fi and its installation as well as ongoing maintenance costs.
We’ve all overheard people talk about how inexpensive the Wi-Fi in their home is compared to what they pay when they are in a hotel. Listening to such statements we can only assume that most of them tend to forget all parameters that are included in the so called “free” Wi-Fi. They forget that they are paying for line rental, that they are using a consumer line which sees bandwidth drop drastically during peak times, that the consumer modem with built in Wi-Fi needs regular rebooting and that when all the kids and their multiple Wi-Fi devices connect the whole set up comes crashing down. All of which would be a disaster if it happened to a guest in a hotel. Obviously some will turn to their 3G card but when they’ve roamed once or twice they soon realize that the hotel broadband is pretty good value. Even more so if you take the following into account.
A hotel must use a professional (Enterprise Solution) router, which comes with a price tag approaching £1,000 or more, (or in other words, over twice the average personal computer). Wireless access points that work, well, they’re around £300. Depending on construction quality of a hotel and the structure itself (old thick walls, various annexes, separate adjoining buildings etc.), a Wi-Fi system can cost tens of thousands of pounds in equipment alone.
Then there is the challenging installation procedure required in a working hotel environment. The hotel needs to get cabling to these access points and you guessed it, more installation costs courtesy of a qualified cable contractor.
The key is that it SHOULD WORK, not some of the time but all of the time, particularly if your guests are paying for the service. Those complaining of poor signal/quality are likely to be in hotels using cheap products or with insufficient access points, or where connection speeds are too slow because the bandwidth is too small. And of course, Wi-Fi maintenance is not something that takes care of itself either.
So next time you get upset about not having Free Wi-Fi, think about this – a quality product or service that consistently delivers doesn’t come for free!