Is travel a privilege? And if so, what does that make WiFi?
Three years post-pandemic, travel is definitively back as a widespread phenomenon. The desire to travel is stronger than ever. Booking portals, travel agencies, and tourism businesses are seeing just as much—if not more—interest than before the disruptive lockdowns. Depending on the offering, booking numbers are going through the roof, yet at the same time, more and more service providers are struggling to cope with the surge of guests. Airlines are canceling flights due to staff shortages, some train services are barring passengers without seat reservations from boarding, and hotels are scheduling extra closing days for their facilities.
An expanding service desert?
Anyone disappointed by declining service standards compared to past years will grit their teeth even more given the widespread price increases: accommodation, restaurants, flight and train tickets—everything is more expensive than ever. Enticing advertisements promising dream vacations leave travelers rolling their eyes in wistful resignation.
At the latest, when standing in a seemingly endless line at economy check-in the required two hours beforehand, wondering if you will make your flight at all, reality hits hard. And a persistent question pushes to the fore: will I have to book business or first class in the future just to travel with a semblance of comfort? And who will still be able to afford all that?
Well, when it comes to flight cancellations and delays, business or first class does not help much either, as seen recently at Innsbruck Airport. What does help to pass the waiting time is WiFi powered by IACBOX—which brings us to the core point of the story.
A matter of resources
Much like full planes and fully booked hotels, WiFi access is primarily a question of resources determining whether you can still connect or not. Airports usually have very high-performance internet connections, referred to as an uplink in tech speak. For hotels, the situation is more varied: are we in the city center, or in a pristine yet secluded bay within a dune nature reserve? Speaking of which, read more here about WiFi in vacation paradises, including a Survival Guide for Smart Travelers!
To be fair, guest WiFi is not a fixed, per-guest allocation like a seat on an airplane or train. Another key difference is that not everyone is online simultaneously, nor do they consume equal bandwidth; effective bandwidth management can therefore yield significant improvements. And much like the extra legroom in business class, guests in premium tiers can also be offered that little something extra.
Overbooking as a growing issue
Free WiFi has long been one of the most critical filter criteria on online booking platforms, and hardly any property goes without offering it. It is often considered as essential as running water. Nevertheless, properties must consider how to manage limited bandwidth sustainably over the long term—bandwidth limitations exist even for the best-connected venues. Data consumption is growing exponentially, and without defined limits, the uplink will quickly buckle under pressure when multiple guests stream movies or play online games at the same time.
Running water certainly does not mean a whirlpool in every room, or even a bathtub. Hence, the trend is shifting toward tiered services, and incorporating this transparently into guest communications is well worth doing. Guests who want premium service simply select a higher-tier plan.
Smart resource management delivers results
So is hotel WiFi really a privilege? Not genuinely. In an environment bustling with international guests where roaming calls or cellular data access can quickly become exorbitant, there is simply no viable alternative. Furthermore, every hotelier benefits when guests share stunning photos of the resort on social media. Ensuring that everyone can do so—not just the first ten users to log in—is all the more critical. This is precisely what a solution with smart bandwidth management like IACBOX delivers. It can also prioritize specific devices or users, transforming premium WiFi service from a mere buzzword into a genuine privilege.
Would you like to learn more about deploying IACBOX at your property? Contact one of our professional IACBOX partners near you. Within the #iacboxfamily, top-tier consulting is our standard.
