Fast hotel broadband considered top guest requirement
A survey of 1,000 business travellers by communications specialist Quadriga found that 62 per cent deem a reliable broadband connection to be the most important commodity when staying in a hotel.
The service was rated as just as important as other more obvious luxuries, such as decent bathroom facilities (68 per cent) and a comfortable bed (70 per cent).
Marc Budie, technology director at Quadriga, said: “Today’s business traveller expects to find at least the same level of connectivity and technology in their hotel room as they have at home and work, to enable them to check emails, surf the internet and download content.”
Expensive practice
He suggests that hotels aim to provide at least 10MB broadband speed to each guest, the average available to homes in the UK, but admits this can be a costly exercise.
“For a 100-bedroom hotel this would mean supplying around 1GB of bandwidth, which is enormous and would be very expensive to achieve.
“Providing sufficient bandwidth at an acceptable cost level whilst keeping guests happy has always been a difficult balancing act for hoteliers. This is further fuelled by the move of some hotels to provide internet access for free to gain competitor advantage.”
