Bandwith Hogging Eased at Langham Melbourne
As Internet use continues to rise dramatically, 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 four- and five- star 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 increasing concerns for hoteliers, iBAHN, a global provider of digital entertainment and broadband products and services for hospitality and meeting industries, 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 integrated software solution is simple to implement and does not require extra equipment, technical expense, or additional capital expenditures. This creates the opportunity for increased satisfaction and loyalty by offering guests a choice with tiered pricing and service. Guests decide the level of service that’s right for them and the system simply delivers. Properties can better allocate wired and wireless services, offset costs, and gain flexibility to ensure the best fit for the property and guest.
The Langham Hotel, 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 bandwidth management solution allows us to offer tiered Internet services tailored to meet the differing needs of our business and leisure guests. 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,” noted Neeraj Subramanian, information technology manager for the Langham Hotel, Melbourne.
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 chief executive officer. “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.”
