Hotels look to wireless access as key differentiator

For hoteliers to stay competitive, they need to look beyond room cost and consider improving their guest wireless experience, according to a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Motorola Solutions (www.motorolasolutions.com) in April 2013.

This survey, which includes responses from 500 participants including North America IT decision-makers with responsibility for WLAN/Wi-Fi at hotels with 25 rooms or more, found there is a gap between expectations and performance of hotel WLAN performance. These IT decision-makers are identifying the complexity of offering guest wireless access, and the need to utilize it as a differentiator for guests in the hotel marketplace.

Thirty-one percent of IT decision-makers in hotels find WLAN infrastructure and operations to be lower than business expectations. More than half of hotel business decision-makers understand there are multiple facets to guest wireless and its complexity. Thirty-eight percent of IT decision-makers in hotels said a key guest complaint is inability to log on with multiple devices.