Everyone in the hospitality industry knows the importance of stellar WiFi. When guests enter your hotel, they expect all the comforts of being at home and more. And WiFi comes into that. The only issue is that you aren’t just providing for one, but potentially hundreds. That’s where hotel WiFi solutions can be a lifesaver.
The last thing you want is to compromise the quality of your WiFi just because you are attracting a large number of guests. When running a hotel, you must know your WiFi will cover your entire premises without dead spots.
It must be powerful enough to provide high-speed connections for all your guests. If you’re researching solutions, you probably already know what a tall order this is.
In this guide, we’ll run you through all of the essentials. You’ll learn why to invest in your WiFi as a hotel, popular WiFi solutions, and where captive portals help. You’ll be up to speed in no time.
Top 3 Reasons To Invest in WiFi
There are many reasons a hotel WiFi solution can benefit your business. There are the obvious things like improving customer experience, but there are extra things to consider.
For instance, did you know that your hotel WiFi can aid business expansion and growth?
In this section, we’ll explain precisely why you should invest in your hotel’s WiFi.
1. It Enables Organic Marketing
Offering great-quality WiFi enables your customers to interact with your business online. It allows them to use social media, updating their stories with artsy shots that impress friends while advertising your business.
All of this is organic marketing, that is, marketing that you don’t organize. The benefit is that it is more authentic, and other customers get a trusted endorsement of your business. Offering WiFi is a great way to prompt organic marketing and online engagement.
You can further encourage this by offering photogenic areas and leaving “tag us” notices on your hotel’s social handles.
2. It Limits Staff’s Workloads
Offering WiFi limits your staff’s workloads. It stops the endless WiFi questions when you have a clear login process. You can use QR codes and captive portals with clearly named networks to overcome this initial barrier. Then, the whole WiFi process is independent; guests can handle everything without staff.
Similarly, by offering great WiFi, you remove most concierge-style questions, like tours and transport queries. It’s great to offer guidance to provide a luxury, helpful stay.
However, removing all those basic questions that Google easily answers leaves your staff more time for big questions. It’s all about freeing up their plate.
3. It Builds Loyalty
Hotel WiFi can also build loyalty. Usually, you do this by offering a captive portal system (more on that shortly) and asking for email addresses. You can then target your customers through email marketing to continue a relationship with them after their stay.
This ongoing correspondence is great for building customer loyalty. You can also use your hotel WiFi to put your foot in the door—jamming it open.
Adding Captive Portals To Your Hotel WiFi Solution
Adding a captive portal to your hotel WiFi solution is a fantastic way to build long-term relationships with hotel guests. A captive portal pauses immediate internet access and requests that guests comply with a web page form first.
It’s a way of continuing that relationship long after they check out, even encouraging return visits with promotional emails. Besides that, we have three extra bonuses for using captive portals to consider.
1. WiFi Security
Secure WiFi is an absolute must; adding a captive portal can tick that box. Your portal page can feature anything from Terms and Conditions agreements to CAPTCHAs. It is a great way to bolster your existing WiFi solution and make it more secure for guests.
2. Hotel Reputation
Using your captive portal, you can request online engagement through reviews to build a better reputation. For instance, you can ask guests to rate you on TripAdvisor or Google. The more positive reviews you can get, the better your reputation will be.
So offer a great service and experience and invite reviews through your captive portal.
3. Enables Marketing
This is similar to what we first mentioned: captive portals enable future marketing. They allow you to collect details like phone numbers and email addresses for future campaigns. This is great for long-term growth.
3 Popular Hotel WiFi Solutions
Phew. We’ve covered a lot today, and you are already on your way to understanding why hotel WiFi is so important. It is definitely time to get practical, so here’s a solution for the most common hotel problems. These are the three hotel WiFi solutions to improve hotel WiFi immediately.
1. For Slow WiFi or Dead Spots
When battling slow WiFi or dead spots, you should look into WiFi extenders and Mesh WiFi. Hotels are notoriously difficult for speedy WiFi, as traveling through walls and doors slows connections down. Even just having multiple floors muddies the water for your precious WiFi.
WiFi extenders, repeaters, and Mesh WiFi all boost your signal by spreading extra devices and nodes throughout your hotel. Think of it like a game of hotel WiFi dominos.
2. For WiFi That Converts Customers
Hotel wireless solutions also convert customers, and you should research things like captive portals. A captive portal collects details from your guests as they try to access your WiFi. Therefore, it’s great for helping you stay in touch long-term and convert one–off customers into loyal guests.
You could ask for email addresses in exchange for WiFi and email marketing campaigns. For example, you could send out birthday and holiday discounts.
3. When Your WiFi Isn’t Secure
You want each client device to be safe when using your hotel WiFi network. You can use solutions like captive portals and security software to make your WiFi more secure for guest use.
This is also great for building trust in your brand, as you want guests to view you as legitimate and reliable.
Beambox: Providing You With the Best Hotel WiFi
There’s no denying the importance of fast and reliable hotel WiFi. When running a business, your hotel guests must be happy with your WiFi service. The last thing you want is negative reviews for your hotel.
And here at Beambox, we understand that. When choosing a WiFi solution, you must know you can trust it to bring amazing results.
We use all-in-one WiFi software to bring hotel WiFi to a new level. You may have chosen your WiFi provider and got any necessary WiFi extenders. Fantastic. But what about network security and using your WiFi to build customer loyalty?
That’s where our captive portal system comes in. A captive portal blocks customers from proceeding directly to your WiFi, instead asking them to complete a web form. You can use this to add an extra layer of security, enforcing terms and conditions for usage or CAPTCHAs.
Alternatively, you can request contact details like email addresses for future marketing campaigns or loyalty programs.
Start your Beambox free trial today and take control of your hotel WiFi network. Your hotel WiFi solutions should placate customers and invest in your future and business growth.
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