Secure Wi-Fi in accommodation, key to 70% of travelers

The tourism sector is expected to achieve similar growth figures to 2019 figures this year, when Spain ranked second in the number of visitors in the world with more than 80 million tourists. Despite these positive expectations, the tourism industry must continue to work to provide its customers with the best services, improve work and improve quality.

In this sense, the digitization of the sector is the key to ensuring the growth in demand for accommodation, transportation and various points of interest, not only by adopting disruptive technologies but also by improving core technologies, such as Internet connectivity.

The use of advanced technologies that improve the customer experience, as well as providing a secure and high-quality Wi-Fi connection, is a distinctive factor in the tourism industry, especially in the field of accommodation. In fact, it is estimated that 70% of travelers are looking for technologically advanced hotels and tourist apartments, as well as a stable and risk-free Wi-Fi connection, stated David Carrion, Director of Communications Unit at Fibratel.

Indeed, with the advent of remote work, it is becoming more and more popular to increase the demand for a good Internet connection in tourist accommodations, which allows to carry out work without complications. Most hotels and holiday apartments – about 99% – have Wi-Fi in their facilities. However, it is often not effective, which means poor or even non-existent connectivity in certain areas of the residence, slow during use and even impediments to using it on different devices.

To improve this service, which is key to ensuring growth in the tourism industry, Fibratel, a global integrator of IT solutions, proposes three formats for hotels of any size and anywhere:

• Create a suitable Wi-Fi infrastructure. The first step is to know the state of your Wi-Fi infrastructure to find potential issues and find the most appropriate solution for each case. For this, three basic requirements must be met. The first is to provide coverage for all areas of accommodation to ensure connectivity no matter where the guest is. On the other hand, we must ensure the availability of Wi-Fi, which must be of high quality, speed and uninterrupted. Finally, this communication must be protected, and customer information ensured at all times.
• Network Monitor. While it’s important to have a good Wi-Fi infrastructure, it’s also important to keep it in perfect condition to ensure it’s up and running. For this, it is important to have tools to monitor the state of the network in real time. The goal is to find and fix potential performance issues as quickly as possible to ensure service continuity. In this sense, Fibratel has cloud management solutions such as Cisco Meraki, which automatically monitors the entire Wi-Fi infrastructure of each residence for errors and allows simple management of the entire infrastructure, including all elements: access to electronics, wifi equipment, surveillance cameras Video and firewalls.
• Bandwidth. In addition to having a good infrastructure, it is important to consider the connection speed and bandwidth of the operator. Thus, it is necessary to know the individual needs of the accommodation, given that the connections are increasingly synchronizing, more bandwidth is consumed and the guest is quickly becoming more in demand. Cisco Meraki MX solutions allow the pooling of different WAN links for a higher connection speed and allow redundancy in the event of an operator failure.

“Bad Wi-Fi connection can result in economic losses to the property. Being a deal breaker for many travelers, poor Wi-Fi can contribute to lost business and leisure bookings. Installing a Wi-Fi infrastructure that adapts to the needs is The specifics for each property are an investment with a short ROI period because it improves the customer experience and translates to higher occupancy,” concludes David Carrion, Director of Communications Unit at Fibratel.