Some things are perfectly acceptable under certain circumstances and shockingly bad under other circumstances.
BT (British Telecomm) is under fire for using browser re-direct (the same process you see in the hotel to send guests to a welcome/login page) to sell customers new services. The difference is that for an individual user in a hotel this is an interruption of a few seconds and it's necessary for the hotelier's legal protection. For businesses in the UK, it's neither expected nor minor.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/29/bt_hijack/
Monday, March 29, 2010
Monday, March 1, 2010
Indie Hotspots Could Perish in UK for Piracy Law
reported by Glenn Fleishman at wifinetnews.com Feb. 28
http://ow.ly/1cWb7
Indie Hotspots Could Perish in UK for Piracy Law
"A UK law under consideration and much reviled by privacy advocates would make independent Wi-Fi hotspots legally indefensible."
That includes hotels, cafes and anyone else who does not (want to) charge enough to operate the required systems to authenticate users and block those who are suspected of wrongdoing. Sounds like a great way for the cell carriers to promote their paid services above all alternatives - I hope we don't see the same direction in the U.S.
http://ow.ly/1cWb7
Indie Hotspots Could Perish in UK for Piracy Law
"A UK law under consideration and much reviled by privacy advocates would make independent Wi-Fi hotspots legally indefensible."
That includes hotels, cafes and anyone else who does not (want to) charge enough to operate the required systems to authenticate users and block those who are suspected of wrongdoing. Sounds like a great way for the cell carriers to promote their paid services above all alternatives - I hope we don't see the same direction in the U.S.
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Do you WANT to know? Yes, you do.
HALF.
Half of the hotels we support went down in the last 7 days. They were all brief outages, most during the day, some didn't even generate guest calls. But SIX different ISPs created or allowed problems that killed Internet connections for 50% of the hotels we monitor and support.
It was an odd week, to be sure - that many ISP failures isn't the norm. On average, every property sees half a dozen brief outages in a year. You may think that your ISP is better - but that probably means that you're not getting reports when it happens and you're HSIA provider isn't watching and alerting you.
So should we? Should we watch all those connections all day long and take the time and trouble to call the Front Desk to say 'There's a problem, we contacted the ISP, we'll let you know as soon as it's up'?
I think so. We could be lazy and only call when something's down for more than an hour, or if it's after 5:00pm. Actually, more than a third of our properties have load balancers - they never go down completely unless they lose power. But we still tell them what's going on. Why?
Because you're there and we're not.
We're the geeks, the guys who know all the little things about the network, the one who take the guest calls - both simple and complex. But the Front Desk staff is there at the property 24 x 7, interacting with EVERY guest. The more we can do the keep them informed (and equipped to provide the best possible service to guests), the happier the guests will be.
It's only been a few years since guests started expecting Internet service at every brand - it will only be a few more before they expect every property to be able to answer:
- How fast is the connection?
- Is Bit Torrent blocked?
- Can I connect my Xbox?
- How many users can you handle in the meeting room?
We're happy to answer the questions on the phone, but the guests will be even happier when they know they can get answers as they check in.
More information - that's where we're all headed.
Half of the hotels we support went down in the last 7 days. They were all brief outages, most during the day, some didn't even generate guest calls. But SIX different ISPs created or allowed problems that killed Internet connections for 50% of the hotels we monitor and support.
It was an odd week, to be sure - that many ISP failures isn't the norm. On average, every property sees half a dozen brief outages in a year. You may think that your ISP is better - but that probably means that you're not getting reports when it happens and you're HSIA provider isn't watching and alerting you.
So should we? Should we watch all those connections all day long and take the time and trouble to call the Front Desk to say 'There's a problem, we contacted the ISP, we'll let you know as soon as it's up'?
I think so. We could be lazy and only call when something's down for more than an hour, or if it's after 5:00pm. Actually, more than a third of our properties have load balancers - they never go down completely unless they lose power. But we still tell them what's going on. Why?
Because you're there and we're not.
We're the geeks, the guys who know all the little things about the network, the one who take the guest calls - both simple and complex. But the Front Desk staff is there at the property 24 x 7, interacting with EVERY guest. The more we can do the keep them informed (and equipped to provide the best possible service to guests), the happier the guests will be.
It's only been a few years since guests started expecting Internet service at every brand - it will only be a few more before they expect every property to be able to answer:
- How fast is the connection?
- Is Bit Torrent blocked?
- Can I connect my Xbox?
- How many users can you handle in the meeting room?
We're happy to answer the questions on the phone, but the guests will be even happier when they know they can get answers as they check in.
More information - that's where we're all headed.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Hospitable Geeks
If we were *only* in the business of answering guest calls to help them get on the Internet, we would worry more about metrics like 'call length' and 'time to resolution'. But we're not. We know what's important to our clients - keeping their guests happy and turning as many as possible into regulars.
We spent nearly an hour today to help a guest who checked into one of our client properties for a month with an Xbox and no laptop. To a non-gamer, that probably sounds odd - but it's not uncommon.
His Xbox wasn't getting an address from the network, even when a laptop did on the same wired jack (in two different guest rooms no less). Clearly a problem with the Xbox, and nobody's going to say the problem kept him from getting work done (not even the guest). But it's important to him and we took as long as necessary to work through the problem so he can do on-line gaming.
Not only is he at the property for a month, but having had a problem with an Xbox at a hotel and knowing that he found a property that accommodated him - where's he going to stay next time? I have no doubt where he'll book next time.
We spent nearly an hour today to help a guest who checked into one of our client properties for a month with an Xbox and no laptop. To a non-gamer, that probably sounds odd - but it's not uncommon.
His Xbox wasn't getting an address from the network, even when a laptop did on the same wired jack (in two different guest rooms no less). Clearly a problem with the Xbox, and nobody's going to say the problem kept him from getting work done (not even the guest). But it's important to him and we took as long as necessary to work through the problem so he can do on-line gaming.
Not only is he at the property for a month, but having had a problem with an Xbox at a hotel and knowing that he found a property that accommodated him - where's he going to stay next time? I have no doubt where he'll book next time.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Your ISP holds you legally responsible for your guests' copyright violations
You can't keep your guests from misbehaving (and for the most part you don't care to), but if a guest illegally downloads copyrighted material you could find yourself with no Internet access - and still paying the bill.
Simple firewalls and other methods like using a filtered DNS service won't fix the biggest copyright problem - Peer to Peer networks. Anyone can find and download copyrighted music and movies and many people now do from places other than their homes so that they aren't held responsible, fined or jailed.
Unfortunately, your hotel is that 'other place'.
Your Internet service provider can terminate your Internet service with no notice and may even continue to bill you. You can prevent guests from using Peer to Peer networks like Bit Torrent with a firewall that can stop Peer to Peer traffic. There aren't many of them, but our guests have been well served by Checkpoint's line of small office firewalls. For as little as $199, it's effective protection.
Yes, once in a while a guest will complain that he can't do something that it 'absolutely vital for his job', but the truth is 99% of all traffic on Bit Torrent is for copyrighted material, as reported just this morning:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/01/student_torrent_survey/
Need help understanding and addressing the problem? Give us a call.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Hospitality is part of the fabric of society
Having lived through a year+ decline in occupancy, not everything looks bright and sunny on the revenue front for hotels. But it's important to remember just how long the hospitality business has been around.
There's a great Flickr group for vintage Hotel and Motel signs http://www.flickr.com/groups/motelhotelsigns if you'd like a bit of nostalgia. Having spent time in the motel my grandparents ran at Lake Tahoe, some of these (all Tahoe) bring back instant memories.
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Your guests think about your service more than you do.
Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch posted an article entitled 'Hotel WiFi Should be a Right Not a Luxury' on New Year's Day. Within 48 hours there were hundreds of comments, including my own.
This is something that is critical to your guests - both business and leisure travelers. It's worth paying more attention to your Internet service because it's clearly a factor in selecting a hotel
Every General Manager should know not only the speed and capacity of their network, but also the number of guests using the network each month and how that has changed in the last 12 months.
If your guests know more about the quality of your service than you do, you may be in trouble.
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