BITAC - Hotel Technology Challenges for 2008

Trent Blizzard | 26 June 2007 |

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The BITAC Tech & Operations 2007 conference hosted an eye-opening town hall discussion about technology challenges faced by hotels.

As the hoteliers discussed the biggest technology challenges they are facing, two emerged as pre-eminent: the growth in bandwidth demand and the need to upgrade from old-fashioned TVs to flatscreens and transition to Hi-Def television.

The bandwidth debate was especially spirited. Basically, guests are using dramatically more bandwidth to do things like:

Download music and video
Watch TV (Slingbox was called Evil)
Use VOIP like Skype or Vonage
Use VPN to conduct business

Apparently, when a few (or few dozen) guests start doing this all at once, they use up the available bandwidth, slow down the network, and complain with righteous indignation. What are hotels doing about it?

Trying to prioritize certain usages (like VOIP and VPN)
Upgrade their entire network infrastructure … an expensive proposition
Choose between hiring a housekeeper or buying more bandwidth
Give away a low-level of bandwidth and charge a premium for true high-speed
Pray that high-speed cellular becomes common among travelers

Mike Craft, the Executive VP and CFO of Peabody Hotel Group, said high-speed is changing from an amenity to a utility and guests expect it to work as well as hot water or electricity.

Everyone agreed that the cellular providers of bandwidth could be their saviors … guests with high-speed Verizon and Sprint cellular enabled laptops don’t bog the network!

While I admit this is a pretty interesting challenge … I am still part of the problem, I still want it wireless, fast, free and now! Gotta run now, there are some streaming videos I need to watch from my hotel room.

Here is one of my favorites videos for all those corporate types.

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