How to keep up with guest demand and deliver reliable Internet performance under the pressures of real-time communications.
Why High Speed Internet Access Matters to Hospitality
Guests put a lot of pressure on hotel WiFi. From live video calls in the lobby to presentations in the conference room, and everything in between – real-time bandwidth demands are place a continuously strain on a hotel network.
Hundreds of properties have come to rely on ELFIQ by Adaptiv Networks for flexible and powerful link balancing solutions that keep up with guest demand and deliver reliable High Speed Internet Access (HSIA).
Get a PDF version of this brief
Improve Guest Experience with Superior Network Performance
5 Stars for Internet Performance
We’ve all been there, you’re planning a business trip or vacation and you start researching online to book a hotel for your stay. Most people turn to online bookings to choose their travel accommodations. Reviews and comments help travelers pick the best hotel to meet their needs. These needs can vary from traveler to traveler, but typically people aren’t interested in the thread count of the bedsheets or what type of complimentary toiletries are available. After the location and onsite amenities, Internet performance is one of the top considerations that guests have when booking a hotel.
Hoteliers know that spotty Internet access leads to guest complaints and affects their bottom line. Poor Internet performance can impact the overall guest experience and is a significant influencer when it comes to whether guests will return and what type of ratings and reviews they post online.
How can you stay ahead of guest expectations and deliver reliable High Speed Internet Access (HSIA)? Hundreds of properties rely on ELFIQ by Adaptiv Networks to deliver superior network performance and a 5 Star HSIA experience for their guests.
Solutions for Hospitality
Real-time communications are the core of networking challenges that hospitality providers face today. The Internet has revolutionized how mobile workforces access information while away from the office, leveraging bandwidth-intensive services like unified communications (UC), video calls and streaming. To meet this need, hospitality providers began offering their customers HSIA in guest rooms. This enables guests to place video call, check emails, use streaming services and book entertainment while they travel. Mobile workers grew accustomed to this service and quickly set a new level of expectation for their stays. Today, Internet connectivity is considered almost as essential as plumbing and electricity in guest requirements.
Five Star HSIA Checklist
AGGREGATION OF MULTIPLE LINKS INTO A SINGLE VIRTUAL NETWORK
Offer dynamic routing and seamless path selection between multiple links from different ISPs and technologies
ZERO-TOUCH PROVISIONING
Offer dynamic routing and seamless path selection between multiple links from different ISPs and technologies.
CENTRALIZED MANAGEMENT AND VISIBILITY
A single platform to manage policies and access reporting and intelligence.
BANDWIDTH OPTIMIZATION
Capability to shape traffic and prioritize applications using QoS and DPI.
INTEROPERABILITY WITH OTHER NETWORK SERVICES
Devices must be capable of interacting with third-party devices and products, and allow automation via (REST) APIs.
INCREASED SECURITY THROUGH ENCRYPTION OPTIONS
Create encrypted tunnels to offer a secure path over broadband Internet links.
Link Balancing: Affordable, Efficient HSIA
A failure of high-speed internet access can cost hotels dramatically with the loss of guest loyalty and revenues. Business travelers have a critical need to connect to corporate applications such as email, VPN, shared documents and internal Web applications. With Internet-based applications like VoIP, Microsoft Office, Zoom, NetflixTM and YouTube, user demand for bandwidth is increasing, and existing links can quickly get saturated.
ELFIQ Link Balancing solutions from Adaptiv Networks provide affordable, efficient multiple Internet link management to hospitality providers. Use any combination of links from multiple sources on multiple technologies, Internet access uptime can reach 99.999% to enhance guest loyalty and ensure rock-solid connectivity for even the most demanding business customers.
There is an overall cost reduction because expensive links such as T1s can be replaced or combining them with low-cost broadband links, such as fiber, DSL or cable modems. Properties can deliver on the promise of constant and reliable Internet access while reducing monthly operating costs.
Control Bandwidth Utilization and Application QoS:
Advanced Traffic Steering and Prioritization
Managing network performance across all the different users, systems and applications can be challenging in the 24/7 world of hospitality. If bandwidth saturation causes delay in a real-time voice or video call, that can disrupt both employee and guest communication and negatively impacting the guest experience. Optimal performance requires the right feature set to control bandwidth policy and manage application quality of service (QOS). ELFIQ link balancers offer powerful capabilities you would only expect from much more expensive solutions. Path steering policies to control which links are best for specific users and applications. Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) to automatically identify which applications are running on the network, and Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure the right apps get network priority.
“Adaptiv Networks is always improving and augmenting its offering, solving more of our network performance challenges from a single pane of glass.” – Firmdale Hotels
Affordable, efficient multiple Internet link management for hospitality providers
- Lower the cost of bandwidth with link balancing
- Achieve greater guest scores with traffic prioritization
- Slow down or shut down unwanted traffic for greater performance
Benefits & Features for Hotels
Easy remote installation can take under 10 minutes with help from ELFIQ support. Our solution is deployed at Layer 2 and agnostic to any firewall. Available as a managed service, perfect for properties with limited IT skills and fast staff turnover
- Deliver uninterrupted HSIA to guests with Link Failover
- Save on your monthly bandwidth costs with Traffic Segmentation
- Block unwanted application traffic with Elfiq App Optimizer (Optional)
- Keep your HSIA and corporate traffic separated on different VFIs
- Stay up to date and running even during outages with 4G/LTE support
- Increase guest scores with impeccable connectivity by leveraging Elfiq QoS
- Offer tiered Internet services with Elfiq PrioMap
- Allocate bandwidth where and when you need it with Time of Day Conditions
10 Steps for Providing Stellar Internet Quality
- LAN Failsafe – Keep your HSIA running even during power outages.
- 3G/4G/LTE Mobile Carrier Support – A lifeline to the outside when the cables are cut.
- Time of Day Conditions – Allocate bandwidth where it’s needed, when it’s needed.
- Quality of Service – Ensure the right type of traffic receives the bandwidth it needs.
- Layer-7 Traffic Shaping – Block or limit undesirable application traffic, prioritize business applications.
- Tiered Wifi – Guarantee higher performance for VIP guests.
- Traffic Segmentation – Send key application traffic on dedicated links to ensure delivery.
- High Availability – Link balancing products can be deployed in high availability and failover mode to ensure maximum uptime to increase business continuity.
- Keep Private Data Secure – Separate your guest HSIA traffic from your corporate traffic to avoid unpleasant surprises.
- Intelligent Condition Verification – Set rules and thresholds to optimize your bandwidth usage.
Case Study: Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group is a British international hotel management company offering luxury hotels, resorts and residences in Asia, Europe and the Americas. With many locations across some of the world’s most prestigious destinations, Mandarin Oriental strives to provide 21st century luxury with oriental charm through distinctive design and a strong sense of place.
Challenge
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has a rich history that goes back to the late 1800’s with the opening of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. They have continued to evolve with the needs of their guests over the years, and delivering quality HSIA was part of that. However, with the increasing bandwidth requirements of such applications such as Skype, Netflix, and YouTube, the strain on Mandarin Oriental Hotels’ networks increased every year.
Solution
The Mandarin Oriental team decided to try ELFIQ Link Balancing solutions. The recommendation had come from peers in other companies who were already ELFIQ clients.
Not only did the product solve the bandwidth challenges, but it could also be deployed in such a way that could protect hotels against both planned and unplanned outages alike. Available in “failover kit” pairs, these devices can add a second layer of security and resilience. Should one device become unresponsive, a second one operations while alerting the IT department.
Today, most Mandarin Oriental properties own ELFIQ Failover Kits as a part of the link balancing solution. The Hotel Group can count on a solid international network of value-added resellers to assist local properties in purchasing and deploying new devices when the need arises, and on the ELFIQ professional services team to perform remote configuration. Adding more circuits can be done seamlessly and easily, on demand, without having to worry about unused bandwidth, and can be put to use from the very moment it is hooked up to the Link Balancer.
“We have deployed the ELFIQ Solution in most of our properties around the world, allowing us to offer uninterrupted HSIA to our guests. I would recommend these solutions to any hotel property.” – Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group
Case Study: Conrad Dubai
Conrad Dubai is a 51-storey luxury hotel, located in Dubai’s commercial center on Sheikh Zayed Road. The 555-room property was officially opened in 2013. The hospitality sector has its own particularities – 24/7 High Speed Internet Access (HSIA) has become essential to guests, who have come to expect it as a bare minimum when choosing a destination, or corporate clients, who rent conference rooms and reception halls. As part of one of Hilton’s luxury brands, Conrad Dubai feels this requirement daily.
Challenge
Conrad Dubai has always delivered on the promise of quality HSIA to its guests. However, leased lines (i.e.: private circuits, private lines) are particularly expensive in Dubai, and the property was planning to replace its costly line with multiple lower bandwidth ADSL links. The move would provide considerable savings on a monthly basis. Yet, despite the savings, they were afraid that it would be at the expense of performance, which was an unacceptable risk. They continued to look for an alternative.
Solution
The solution came to the Conrad Dubai through word-of-mouth. A gentleman who used to work at a supplier providing the property with HSIA support suggested that the hotel looked into ELFIQ link balancing technology.
What they found answered the two challenges they were facing: it was an affordable solution which would help them save on the cost of their bandwidth from day one, and one which would manage the all ADSL lines to avoid any performance loss.
Adding more circuits can be done seamlessly and easily, on demand, without having to worry about unused bandwidth, and can be put to use from the very moment it is hooked up to the Link Balancer.
“I was afraid that adopting multiple ADSL lines would reduce the speed, but it didn’t – it’s stable as if I had a leased line. I currently have 620 Mbps worth of bandwidth with the LBX2600, and I am now planning to increase the bandwidth to 1.1 Gbps.” – Conrad Hotels
About Adaptiv Networks
Adaptiv Networks is the creator of powerful, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WANs) for the most challenging locations requiring high availability for business-critical application traffic. Businesses rely on Adaptiv Networks’ Cloud-Managed SD-WAN to provide secure, high-performance, and highly reliable networking for their voice, data, and video communications needs. Adaptiv Networks serves more than 250 customers, with more than 2,500 sites deployed through 30 partners.