Guests now expect fast and secure WiFi every single time they check in to a hotel. In fact, not providing great guest WiFi can actually damage your hotel’s reputation and negatively impact on repeat guest visits; so it’s an essential amenity every hotel needs to invest in. It’s also an essential way for hotels to future proof, helping to create a lasting marketing strategy which loyalty front and centre. In this article, we’ll show you four ways you can use guest WiFi to future proof your hotel.
Hotel guest WiFi: a quick overview
WiFi has now gained more importance to guests than offering breakfast when it comes to making a booking. Modern guests now expect a strong, fast and quality WiFi provision comparable to their home internet every time they check into a hotel. They need it to be capable of carrying out essential work, as well as streaming box sets and music. And they want it for free. Hotels need to invest in secure WiFi that has the capability of providing all of these things for their guests, with a security focus on both private and public networks. But it isn’t only customers who benefit from offering guest WiFi access. Hotels can use the opportunities in data collection and engagement that guest WiFi offers to create strong and interesting future communications that will keep guests coming back.
4 ways offering guest WiFi will help your hotel future proof
The hotel industry is competitive. Hotels need to create strong and dynamic campaigns that can react to industry or demographic changes consistently. Ways to use WiFi for hotel future proofing include:
1. WiFi makes sharing engaging video content quick and easy
To future proof, you firstly need to invest in creating genuine engagement. Social media platforms are great ways for hotels to engage with customers, strengthening your brand values and encouraging return guest bookings. Generating video content is a perfect way to do this, sharing clips and videos from your hotel on Instagram Stories or on Facebook. Even better, encourage your hotel guests to share their user-generated content of your hotel. This will increase your online presence and interaction, essential for lasting engagement. Quality WiFi makes this much easier for both you and your guests, giving them the tools to quickly create and share their video content from their stay with you. Making engagement a focus of your hotel will increase your ability to future proof.
2. Use customer data collected from WiFi to create perfect communications
Offering guest WiFi is the perfect way for your hotel to quickly and easily collect valuable personal information on every guest across every touch point with your hotel during their stay. Information such as email addresses, phone numbers and demographic data are easily captured during WiFi log-ins. You can then use this data to create carefully segmented, individualised and relevant communications for every single customer. For example, you can send a customer a special birthday booking offer, or promote an offer based on their latest visit. Not only does this make your marketing strategy more effective, but you’ll be able to use this data to efficiently push customers through your future sales funnels, developing lasting and personalised communications that make them want to come back. Customers are much more likely to feel valued with individualised communications, which will generate lasting loyalty into the future.
3. WiFi will help you increase your hotel’s social proof
Every hotel knows how important hotel reviews are. That’s because online hotel reviews tap into the phenomenon of social proof, which states that people are more likely to want to visit places other have been to, precisely because others have. Psychologically, we want to all be the same. So generating a strong base of great online reviews on sites such as Tripadvisor is essential. WiFi makes this much easier. As well as setting up an automatic request for a hotel review while customers are using your WiFi, you can also use data captured such as email addresses to send auto messages asking for reviews after customers have stayed with you. Using WiFi capabilities to generate online hotel reviews is essential to develop future staying power within the competitive hotel industry.
4. WiFi lets you identify and respond to future marketing trends
One of the most important ways hotels can future proof is to identify and respond to trends and market changes quickly. WiFi will give you the tools to identify these changes. With guest WiFi, you can ask for feedback on service and experience from customers by directing them to survey pages on log in. You can send automatic requests for feedback via email or SMS. You can also use location-tracking in combination with beacon technology to track how your guests really use your hotel. For example, you can track how long they spend at certain locations such as your hotel restaurant, spa or business suite. This is incredibly powerful for hotels, as you’ll have real time data which will give you the ability to react to changes as they happen, helping you constantly future proof and knowing where best to invest in the future.
Guest WiFi will help hotels meet future challenges
All hotels need to react to emerging trends and respond to changing demands from guests. Being able to do this dynamically and quickly will ensure continued hotel business success. WiFi is a vital tool for this, turning a now expected guest amenity into a powerful information and behavioural prediction tool for every hotel. Using guest WiFi to collect powerful real time data, in combination with feedback and marketing automation will make sure your marketing strategy is effective for the long term, giving your hotel real future proofing power.
