As internet use continues to rise dramatically within homes and businesses, travellers now consider fast, reliable Internet service a standard amenity while on the road.
Additionally, travellers expect accessibility not only via laptops, but on mobile devices such as smart phones, tablets and on television screens.
This increased trend of travellers uploading and downloading content as well as utilising the Internet on multiple devices such as smart phones and tablets has created a growing challenge for hoteliers as they attempt to ‘share’ the hotel’s designated amount of bandwidth amongst their guests.
“Bandwidth hogging” in many upscale and luxury hotels means that it only takes a handful of guests uploading or downloading large volumes of content – particularly video – to severely slow or interrupt the broadband connection for the remaining hotel guests.
To address these ever concerns for hoteliers, iBahn has launched a bandwidth management solution.
The new offering allows dynamic and intelligent bandwidth management and the ability for properties to offer a choice of Internet service levels to better meet guest demands.
The Langham, Melbourne is the first hotel in the Asia-Pacific region to alleviate the bandwidth issue for business travellers, with installation of iBahn’s bandwidth management solution completed this week.
“The iBahn bandwidth management solution allows us to offer tiered Internet services tailored to meet the differing needs of our business and leisure guests,” said Neeraj Subramanian, Information Technology Manager for The Langham, Melbourne.
“This solution also helps ensure the ISP link to the building is not saturated, ensuring a high quality service for our guests and enabling cost efficiencies,” he said.
With iBahn’s bandwidth management offering, up to four tiers of service can be set up with a specific speed and data volume level. While the first tier may continue to be a free or minimal fee service, guests requiring higher performance can select the bandwidth choice and fee to meet their productivity needs. Real-time usage tracking and dynamic upgrade capability are built in to the software solution.
“Guest-driven bandwidth management is a powerful differentiator in creating more satisfying guest experiences,” said David W. Garrison, iBahn’s CEO. “iBahn’s bandwidth management solution not only puts the guest in control of the service they receive, it is a powerful enabler for properties to control costs, tap into new revenue opportunities, and more effectively manage the brand.”