Have you been getting calls to the front desk lately about spotty hotel WiFi in certain rooms or slow connections across the board? Wireless internet connections are hospitality industry standard these days, and nowhere is this more obvious than in customer expectations.
Your guests expect access to hotel WiFi while staying with you, and they expect it to be reasonably fast and probably free (or at least a freemium experience with tiered WiFi access for faster download speeds). Most consumers know that free, public WiFi networks will be a little slow, but they also expect a higher level of service at your hotel than they might get at Starbucks. In the guest’s view, they are purchasing a temporary home for the evening or the week, and most homes have reliable WiFi.
Is Bad WiFi Affecting Your Hotel’s Reputation?
- Check with your front desk staff. Are you getting complaints while guests are staying with you that your hotel WiFi is slow or not working? Your staff is your first line of defense when it comes to reputation management. Make sure there is a clear reporting structure so you know when issues like WiFi connectivity arise. Chances are, if customers are complaining about the hotel WiFi to your front desk staff, they are going to take those complaints to their friends, family and hundreds of thousands of online acquaintances. Which brings me to…
- Make sure you are checking your online reviews. Do your TripAdvisor and Yelp reviews mention a bad guest experience with your hotel WiFi networks? If they do, this is probably a huge red flag. WiFi is the #1 requested amenity and if your network isn’t up to your guests’ standards, they’ll let others know.
- Are you noticing a drop-off in return customers? The return customers statistic does not, in of itself, directly correlate to the quality of your WiFi – many variables contribute to whether or not guests return to stay at your hotel. But in combination with reports to your front desk staff and online reviews, lower recurring guest rates may also be an indication that your are in need of a new hotel WiFi solution.
