The SecurEdge Blog

If you manage a hotel, resort, or spa, you already have your hands full. You’re busy monitoring employee performance, analyzing how to improve service, tracking upcoming events your staff is responsible for, ensuring that events are well-managed, and following financial reports with an eye towards improving profitability. What else could someone possibly put onto your already overflowing plate? How many hats can a hospitality manager reasonably be expected to wear?

Most hotel guests have a dirty little secret: they’re addicted to WiFi.

Providing fast, reliable and secure WiFi is critical in the hospitality business. Whether you're managing the wireless network for a chain of trendy coffee shops or overseeing the infrastructure of an all-inclusive resort, having the right tools and services can not only make your job a lot easier, but improve customer satisfaction and overall success of your business. 

The Meeting’s Industry, like most industries, has changed dramatically over the last decade, as new technology has reshaped the way we communicate and share our ideas and experiences. Events like Ted Talk, Atmosphere and Comic Con, rely on fast, reliable and secure WiFi to not only meet the demands of attendees who are busy hash-tagging and live tweeting the event, but to support the presenters, event coordinators, vendors, venue hosts, and IT team who all work tirelessly to bring the event together.

Today’s travelers are tech savvy and tech reliant, and they just won’t stand for slow, unreliable WiFi at a hotel or resort. If they can’t quickly and painlessly send work emails, attend Skype meetings from their room, or stream movies on their laptops, they’ll hop on Yelp (even if they have to wait until they get home for a better WiFi connection!) and write a bad review. And worse, they’ll probably check into a different hotel on their next trip.

If you’re considering partnering with a company that provides managed network services—or you already have—what precisely would they be doing, and what kind of value would it bring to your business?

Today’s hospitality approach is more customer-centric than ever, because most hotel and resort operators understand the negative impact that one bad Yelp or TripAdvisor review can have on customer retention and new business. On the flip side, positive online reviews drive hospitality business. In a recent article from BigHospitality, "Over 25 percent of TripAdvisor users either stayed at hotels longer, spent more, or undertook more activities as a result of using the website."

Let’s pretend it’s Opposite Day, and you’re looking to deploy a slow, spotty, unreliable wireless network for your business or organization. You’re in luck! There are several common mistakes made by IT management and key decision makers, across all industries, when trying to implement secure WiFi. We’ve narrowed it down to the five worst. (You’re welcome.)