Hosting events is a major revenue generator for hotels. Whether it’s a convention, wedding, team meetings, among others, planning and implementing the event without a slip up is crucial to ensure a good experience, the return of those events and referrals.
The industry is seeing rapid growth in events. Even in the U.S. secondary market, those cities saw growth that exceeded the top 25 markets in December, according to Knowland by Cendyn. Louisville, Kentucky, for example, had 135.6 percent year-over-year growth. Additionally, Hilton credited solid international performance and continued strength in group travel for Q1 results that exceeded the company’s expectations.
Knowing that events are on the rise, what does the venue need to consider? Business, group and event travel is where the money is for hospitality, and hotels must ensure their properties are upgraded and equipped to make these events successful. Let’s explore the five main areas to consider for hosting events when upgrading infrastructure for existing properties and thoughtfully planning for new properties.
A Reliable Network
Everyone needs reliable, secure and fast access to the internet throughout the entire conference experience. These hosting venues will be required to have Wi-Fi 6 technology to support the demands. It provides four times more capacity and 75 percent less latency than Wi-Fi 5 and allows for faster data transfer speeds and better performance in crowded areas where attendees use Wi-Fi connected devices. Wi-Fi 6 is also ideal for supporting wireless applications, such as 4K video streaming, virtual reality, augmented reality and video conferencing. Without it, operators simply cannot meet the technology demands of event planners and delegates.
Configuring a network for events can be complex for large spaces, high concentrations of people and when roaming around the different areas on the property or connected properties. Hotels need a similar—but better—experience to what is offered on cell phone networks. Wi-Fi must keep guests continuously connected wherever they may end up during their stay—the conference center, hotel room, pool or restaurant. Many hotel brands utilize a software based network configuration tool that allows networks to be preconfigured prior to the actual event.
There are several resources for determining what type of network is right for a meeting facility. Encore, a company known for event technology and production services, has even developed a bandwidth calculator that can be used for determining the required bandwidth for events. A similar calculator was also developed by an HTNG event planning workgroup.
Supporting High-Bandwidth Activities
Live video streaming of events, along with live high-res photo uploads that enable attendees to share these assets in real time is a requirement that hotel wired and wireless networks need to satisfy. These high-bandwidth activities will continue to put exponential strain on the network. To meet the experience needs of both onsite and offsite attendees, a hybrid AV setup needs to be combined with a solid network infrastructure to simultaneously video stream sessions to remote attendees and also stream those events into different rooms at the venue.
Many hotels leverage bandwidth management technology, such as internet gateways, to prioritize Wi-Fi performance to different areas or groups, and keep the guest connected where it’s needed most. All the concurrent access could put a strain on an outdated infrastructure or one that’s not set up for this type of usage.
Priority Access for Hotels Hosting Events
Hotels may host numerous smaller events onsite at the same time. By having a system in place that is designed for events, the hotel can set up separate SSIDs/virtual networks for each event to create more secure and reliable access. This also helps with prioritization of bandwidth where each conference group will get priority access (based on the hotel charge for the specific bandwidth requirements) over guests staying at the property. All those guests streaming Netflix in their rooms won’t be able steal the quick speeds from the conference attendees who have paid for a top-level experience.
But just because a meeting ends for the day, the demands on the infrastructure do not wane, especially for hotels. When attendees retire to their rooms in the evening or congregate at the lobby bar or restaurant, sufficient bandwidth outside the event space is still required.
Personalization
As previously discussed, individual SSIDs are a great option as they offer a chance for personalization right as guests and attendees log into the network. The welcome page can be branded to the event, offer important reminders, and provide directions to download event-specific schedules or apps.
Taking it a step further, many hotels are working with regularly returning guests that use the conference spaces now that office space has been downsized. With an authentication technology, such as Passpoint, these guests are automatically connected to the hotel internet upon returning to the property, and this type of technology not only gives access, but it can trigger personalized messages, such as offering a discount or free drink at the hotel restaurant. This is a great tool for up-selling and offering personal greetings when staff members might be distanced or their time limited.
Beyond the attendee experience, it’s also about planning for all types of events. The technology chosen for the network infrastructure should work seamlessly wherever an event organizer would like to host a session or event. Whether in the traditional conference spaces, the onsite restaurant or even outside in gardens or the pool area, offering secure Wi-Fi coverage with sufficient bandwidth in these spaces can create a differentiated experience compared to other hotels in the area that also offer event space.
Preparing for Potential Downtime
One of the biggest concerns for event planners and the hotel is how to effectively plan for a worst-case scenario—the network going down. With so much strain on the network all at once, it can cause outages. How can a hotel prepare for disaster recovery? Or how can they avoid it altogether? Many hotel brands have joint arrangements with nearby hotels to share bandwidth or utilize the nearby hotels bandwidth in the event of an outage. Hotels can also take advantage of Internet Providers that provide burstable circuits or circuits that are enabled on an as needed basis.
With high-availability of the back-end internet infrastructure, the network becomes fully redundant with load balancing, instant failure recovery and increased capacity. If one area does go down, the attendees won’t notice with instant recovery on the back end.
This is not just important for the onsite guests; it’s also critical for the remote attendees. No network at the venue means no video feeds, conference calls or connection to the event. This peace of mind pays dividends for venues wanting to create happy event planners who will want to host again in the future.
A Network that Keeps on Giving
Now is the time to invest in infrastructure upgrades that will power today’s and tomorrow’s connected guest and meeting experiences. Skimping on the Wi-Fi network, especially when it comes to hotels hosting events, will cause more headaches and less repeat business over the long haul. Find a strong partner and service provider that can help navigate all the complexities to ensure the choices are future-proofed.
Interested in learning more? Feel free to reach out.
Richard Wagner is director of certification and compliance at Nomadix.
This article originally appeared on Hotel Management.