POUGHKEEPSIE, NY—Without fast and reliable WiFi, guests won’t want to return to a hotel.
“Every guest, whether an adult or young, uses the Internet, and they get highly upset when it goes out,” said Maureen Kangas, GM, Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel. “They are using the Internet to stay connected while traveling, and rely on coverage to be flawless.”
Kangas noted that the wireless connectivity at the property used to leave something to be desired. “With many guests bringing more than one device to connect to the Internet, our aging system could no longer meet bandwidth needs,” she said. “The lack of perfect connectivity was having an impact on customer satisfaction, and we knew we had to act quickly to keep customers happy.”
Additionally, she said, the hotel had to think about its meetings and events guests. “We also host conferences here at the hotel and knew we had to find a new way to accommodate bandwidth needs for these guests, and to simply ensure in-room connectivity was optimal,” Kangas explained. “Hosting conferences and events for business customers is the lifeblood of our hotel. We needed a long-term solution that provided a reliable, high-speed wireless system that would be easy to manage and fit into our budget.”
Kangas noted that the old wireless infrastructure used access points from several vendors and had numerous patches from issues that weren’t properly addressed. “We knew the whole system had to be replaced,” she said. “We ultimately picked Netgear for its reliability and have not been disappointed with our choice.”
The hotel installed six Netgear ProSAFE WNDAP660 Dual Band Concurrent Premium Wireless-N Access Points for the conference room areas. “These access points are capable of 450 Mbps of throughput and include advanced security options,” explained Kangas. “The conference room area requires the use of high-capacity access points due to the high density of users simultaneously using their smartphones and laptops during meetings.”
In addition, the hotel installed 40 WNDAP360 Dual Band Wireless-N 300 Mbps 802.11n Access Points and a WC7520 Wireless Controller for the ubiquitous wireless coverage for the seven floors of guestrooms. “The wireless controller provides centralized configuration, deployment and management of all access points from a single console. The entire deployment was up and running in less than a day with no interruption to the wireless service,” said Kangas.
Aside from the speed and reliability of the system, Kangas praised how easy the system was to deploy. “It actually took us more time to pull out the old system than it did to get the new one up and running,” she said.
The GM called the implementation a success. “We hosted a conference right after the implementation and we received many compliments on the new wireless access—which was a welcome departure from our old system,” she said.
—Nicole Carlino