Hospitality Digital Transformation Survey Mapping the journey to digital transformation: Hotels put hyper-focus on mobility and connectivity

ABOUT THE STUDY: Findings from this study are based on a survey of global hotel operators, distributed via email during the first quarter of 2018. Collectively, the respon dents’ decisions directly impact 15,762 units. The sample includes a diversity of property types from across the marketplace and a range of revenue tiers.

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

All industries are grappling with the rapid pace of change as well as how exponential advancement of technology is driving guests’ expectations. Surveying hotels on the status of their digital journeys reveals a hyper-focus on three areas: mobility, digital customer engagement and connectivity through Internet of Things policy. These segments of interest align with broader strategic goals for hotel technology investments in 2018. Looking at operators who identify as frontrunners in these three areas, patterns emerge in what innovators do differently from the competition and where they are in agreement with other leaders.

As brands identify the best ways for their organizations to address the fervor for mobility, connectivity and digital engagement, priorities shift to put greater focus — and investment — in certain areas. Security, networks and analytics all jockey for position as a top recipient of IT budget dollars to shepherd hotels through the digital evolution.

Connectivity plays a vital part in this evolution. Innovators identify guest WiFi, CRM/loyalty and customer-facing mobile apps as top investments for digital transformation. This is not markedly different from overall respondents’ selections. This indicates that the competitive bar will be steep as brands are seeking guests’ attention in many of the same ways. Leaders will distinguish themselves with analytics and taking personalization even farther — with location-based technologies, for example.

The self-professed leaders in guest mobility are more likely to invest in analytics (94%) compared to leaders in IoT (78%) and digital engagement (88%). The majority of digital engagement innovators (88%) will have location-based systems in place by 2020. Meanwhile, leaders in guest mobility place two times the importance on technology to improve omni-channel experiences (40% compared to 20%).

Hotels must face head-on the issue of network strain as an array of pressures cause swelling bandwidth demands by 2020. Digital engagement leaders name security and legacy network infrastructures as top stressors. Meanwhile, 44% of IoT leaders say legacy infrastructure will test networks in two years’ time and 22% are already feeling the bandwidth pinch of guests streaming and bringing multiple devices on property.

PERCENTAGE OF HOTELS THAT FEEL THEY ARE INNOVATORS IN…

Digital Guest Engagement 22%

Guest Mobility 20%

Internet of Things 12%

SEGMENT TYPES

Luxury/Upscale 51%

Midscale 38%

Economy 11%

ANNUAL REVENUES

Less than $50 million 48%

$50 million to $99 million 10%

$100 million to $499 million 22%

$500 million to $999 million 5%

$1 billion+ 15%

BRAND TYPES

Corporate/brand entity 22%

Independent 34%

Management company 42%

RESPONSIBILITY LEVEL OF RESPONDENTS

Corporate 63%

Property 37%

Outlook 2020: Trajectory, Challenges & Objectives of a Digital EvolutionIdentifying three pillars of a digital transformation – mobility, digital engagement and connectivity – reveals leaders, laggards, and how strategies and investment plans differ.

ABOUT THE STUDY: Findings from this study are based on a survey of global hotel operators, distributed via email during the first quarter of 2018. Collectively, therespondents’ decisions directly impact 15,762 units. The sample includes a diversity of property types from across the marketplace and a range of revenue tiers.

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Mapping the journey to digital transformation: Hotels put hyper-focus on mobility and connectivity

Digital Hotel LeaderboardThe lodging industry is no stranger to disruptive forces. From increasingly mobile-savvy guests to OTAs cannibalizing direct bookings to Airbnb – hotels have been grappling with how to attract and retain the attention of digitally savvy guests from booking to pre-, during and post-stay. This has resulted in an industry evolution, forcing hospitality companies to think and position themselves like technology companies.

The bar for service has been set by the likes of Amazon, Uber and Google and as those leaders continue to enhance capabilities and frictionless service, so too must hotels. For their part, hotels have been prioritizing digital customer engagement and analytics. Hospitality Technology’s 2018 Lodging Technology Study reveals as much with hoteliers identifying those two areas as the top strategic goals for technology investments. When specifically querying hotels about the digital transformation journey, hotels will continue to leverage digital engagement, mobility and overall connectivity to foster this evolution.

Now is the time for hotels to be differentiating in order to distinguish themselves from the competition. Instead, what becomes evident doing a competitive analysis is that the majority of hotels are falling into “meeting expectations” mentality, where they stay on par with competitors rather than pulling ahead. This represents areas of opportunity. Hotels that emerge as leaders will not hesitate to iterate technologies quickly and explore new revenue streams along with fresh ways of providing service.

To gauge how hotels feel they stack up to the competition, respondents were asked to rate themselves as better than, on par with or lagging competitors (Fig. 1). In doing so, a subset of respondents emerges that can be classified as leaders versus laggards. About one out of three hotels feel that they lead the competition in digital guest engagement. Meanwhile, 20% identify as leaders in guest mobility and another 12% claim to be ahead of the competition when it comes to Internet of Things initiatives. Finding a harmony between mobility, engagement and connectivity will be the key to a hotel’s position in the competitive landscape.

What should future-ready hotels consider regarding digital engagement?

THIERRY BONNIN: End-to-end digital engagement allows hotels to take back control of the entire guest experience, at any point of the journey, with a continuous and personalized connection wherever guests are on their mobile device. Hotels are trying to do this through loyalty programs and as well as by providing applications for the front- and back-of-the-house. This adds pressure to legacy systems as well as extra management complexity. What if it were possible to bring together not only guests and staff, but the entire community, around your brand, with a single application? What if you could do this without adding complexity to the existing network? This was our challenge.

THIERRY BONNIN VERTICAL MARKETS LEADER, CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

BETTER THAN COMPETITORS ON PAR WITH COMPETITORS LAGGING COMPETITORS

22% Better Than Competitors

62% On Par with Competitors

16% Lagging Competitors

20% Better Than Competitors

59% On Par with Competitors

21% Lagging Competitors

12% Better Than Competitors

63% On Par with Competitors

25% Lagging Competitors

Digital Guest Engagement

DIGITAL HOTEL LEADERBOARD: A COMPETITIVE COMPARISON

Guest Mobility Internet of Things

Figure 1

About one out of three hotels feel that they lead the competition in digital guest engagement. Meanwhile, 20% identify as leaders in guest mobility and another 12% claim to be ahead of the competition when it comes to Internet of Things initiatives. Finding a harmony between mobility, engagement and connectivity will be the key to a hotel’s position in the competitive landscape.

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Financing a Digital TransformationHotel technology budgets are notoriously skimpy. According to Hospitality Technology’s 2018 Lodging Technology Study, only 4% of overall revenue goes to IT. Therefore, identifying how budgets divide among innovation areas paints a picture of where priorities lay for hotels.

A majority of hotels (74%) plan to allocate IT dollars to security in 2018 (Fig. 2). With hospitality a top target for hackers, second only to financial institutions according to Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report, having solid security will not only protect both hotels’ and guests’ personal and financial data, but a hotel’s reputation as well.

According to the Verizon report, POS intrusions were more than 40 times more common at accommodation and food service operations than the industry average. Hotel reservations systems are a common target, but hackers more often zero in on on-property restaurants and stores.

Shoring up security will become increasingly vital as guests use personal devices to link to property systems in order to pay, control guestrooms, and access hotel networks. With security taking the top spot for hoteliers’ IT budget attention, digital customer engagement/CXM led the middle tier of priorities with 62% of hoteliers’ putting IT budget dollars there. Bolstering the network and analytics take 57% and 50% respectively. One out of four hoteliers plan to allocate IT budgets specifically to Internet of Things. This will require attention to a strong platform to support the connected components to make an IoT strategy successful and meaningful to guests and staff. What is telling is that self-professed IoT leaders put more IT dollars to digital customer engagement by a fair margin.

TOP ALLOCATIONS FOR IT BUDGETS

74% Security

62% Digital Customer Engagement (CXM)

57% Network

50% Analytics

25% Internet of Things

Figure 2

What security concerns arise in this hyper-connected world?

ANA MATA: Smart and connected thermostats can greatly improve hotel operations, but they also open the door to possible security breaches. • As part of hDef Con 24,

penetration test experts Pen Test Partners, demonstrated how easy it was to hack into a smart thermostat and create fully functioning ransomware that could lock a user out until they paid up.

• A North American casino was hacked via their connected fish tank.

• The electronic key system at an Austrian hotel was hacked in January 2017, leaving guests locked out of their rooms and the hotel locked out of its own computer system, until the hotel paid the Bitcoin ransom.

Protecting IoT traffic and devices requires a strategic approach that takes advantage of multiple security safeguards.

ANA MATA NETWORK SOLUTION MARKETING, CONN ECT ON LINKEDIN

A majority of hotels

(74%) plan to allocate

IT dollars to security

in 2018 (Fig. 2).

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Spending comparisons between leadersNuances in spending emerge when examining leaders in the categories of digital guest engagement, guest mobility and IoT. Leaders in Guest Mobility and IoT place digital customer engagement and analytics above security for IT dollars. Digital Engagement leaders are more likely to prioritize IT budgets for security and digital engagement/CXM. They also spend more on IoT. Guest Mobility leaders similarly focus more on IoT initiatives.

With hotels identifying security as a top priority earmarked for dollars from overall IT budgets, hotels feel more confident in how they rate against their competitors when it comes to security. Only 7% feel that they lag the competition and 36% actually think they are better than their peers. The majority (58%) believe they are at least on par with competitors.

More than half of hotels already utilize six out of 11 security measures hoteliers were asked to evaluate (Fig. 3). As hotels progress through a digital transformation, a multi-layered approach to security will be vital to remain vigilant across channels and access points. Guests and staff accessing the hotel network and systems through both company and personal devices, necessitates security measures be constantly evaluated and updated appropriately. As hackers constantly change methods, so too must hoteliers.

Digital customer engagement leaders are even farther along with security. Of the 11 security measures listed, all except historical user activity were in the over 50% range. In two years, 53% of digital engagement leaders plan to add that to the security matrix as well.

Looking at leaders in guest mobility, they are more likely to have an advanced firewall — with 87% currently having that technology and 95% looking to incorporate by 2020. They are also more likely to have physical network separation with 80% currently having that. That percentage goes up to 93% in two years.

Adding more advanced firewall

Tightening network access control

Physical network separation (Between guests, back-office, IoT systems etc.)

Virtual network segmentation

Device Health Check

Application Level Control

Guest traffic isolation

Use point-to-point/end-to-end encryption

Assessing PCI compliance

Creating network policies for BYOD

Historical user activity storage for regulation compliance

PROGRESS OF SECURITY MEASURES

74%

62%

67%

58%

34%

48%

55%

45%

66%

33%

29%

86%

86%

76%

76%

62%

66%

77%

69%

84%

58%

72%

Figure 3

CURRENTLY HAVE WILL HAVE BY 2020

Top 5 security measurespoised forgrowth

How should hoteliers prepare for Internet of Things (IoT) and the mobile invasion?

ANA MATA: With IoT, hotel operators can radically improve the guest experience and operations efficiency. For example, ordinary mirrors can turn into personal interactive information stations to enable guests to manage hotel room functions, ambiance and entertainment. Connected thermostats can adjust room temperatures based on check-in and check-out times, to eliminate energy waste. Proactive monitoring of appliances or equipment ensures issues are dealt with before they become costly problems. Managing all the data flows created by IoT can be a challenge in many industries, and the first question is often, where and how do we start managing IoT? The connected devices already in the hotel, or brought by guests and staff, need to collaborate and operate seamlessly, but most importantly, they need to be secure.

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

IoT leaders have farther to go with security, with only six of 11 security measures having more than 50% adoption. What IoT leaders do currently have (adding firewall; tightening access control; physical network separation; virtual network segmentation; guest traffic isolation; creating network policies for BYOD) indicates a focus on areas where the connected nature of Internet of Things strategies opens a hotel to greater risk for breaches. One example: leaders in IoT are more than two times as likely to have network policies for BYOD (67%) than the average (33%).

Empowering Guests with Mobility & Personalization

In 2018, hotels are prioritizing mobile and customized services and communication to drive customer experiences. According to Hospitality Technology’s 2017 Customer Engagement Technology Study, personalized communication will influence 47% of potential hotel guests to book at one property over another.

The top three hotel technology investments for hotels on a digital journey focus on empowering guests and providing seamless experiences through personalized communication (Fig. 4). They also stand out in a higher tier from the rest of investment areas. A middle tier includes technologies that will support the top three objectives such as WiFi, analytics, and platforms to support connected devices.

PRIORITIZING TECH INVESTMENTS TO DELIVER ON CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT IN 2018

TOTAL RESPONDENTS DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT GUEST MOBILITY INTERNET OF THINGS

Mobile marketing

Mobile key

Mobile check-in/out

WiFi

Analytics

Internet of Things

Cloud

Location-based services

SMS Messaging

Omni-channel experience

Artificial Intelligence

Interactive kiosks/digital signage

Property-provided tablets

Instant Messaging

71%53%

50%

50%

43%

38%

33%

30%

26%

21%

20%

18%

16%

13%

13%

67%

53%56%

47%

40%

40%

40%

35%33%27%

27%

22%

22%

33%

47%

Figure 4

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

The prioritization of these technologies indicates that hotels are taking a lead from guests. As guests become more comfortable with utilizing technology for all kinds of service, they want and expect to have the option to use technology — and more specifically their own devices — to request service and gain access to rooms.

Guests are becoming more comfortable and accustomed to receiving and sending texts for service, so SMS messaging will continue to climb in importance. Voice-enabled technologies are also increasingly being implemented at a greater rate due to the comfort level of guests. Recent research from PhocusWright reveals that 39% of hotel guests said they are completely comfortable using chat to contact the hotel front desk, while only 7% said they would not be comfortable. Roughly a quarter (24%) of digital engagement leaders and 27% of guest mobility leaders are adding AI/voice-based technologies. These AI-based technologies will be more expected as more consumers have voice-control devices in their own homes.

Similarly, location-based services will be an important part of marketing and guest engagement. Google has found that 2/3 of smartphone users are more likely to buy from companies that personalize to location. Hotels that leverage micro-moments based on location will see not only a lift in sales through appropriate, well-timed offers, but positive upticks in sentiment around service and personalization as well.

Engagement Trumps Efficiency

Hotels continue to place more emphasis on improving guest experiences than increasing efficiency. While still a concern, employee productivity takes a back seat to driving guest engagement through digital means for hotels as they navigate digital disruption. Increasing employee productivity just makes hoteliers’ top five strategic goals for technology, according to HT’s 2018 Lodging Technology Study, with improving digital engagement, customer analytics, security and reducing maintenance costs all taking precedence.

When asked to identify top insights being gathered and analyzed via the hotel network, the premiere focus for data is all about understanding the guest. Information about building management and employee tracking rank lowest (Fig. 5). IoT leaders address the complexities of “losing” data to online travel agents. As OTAs don’t share the data they gather, it’s up to hoteliers to find ways to capture guest data early and often in order to provide customized, targeted communication and offers to guests. Leaders in IoT place greater value on gathering OTA data, 67% compared to 33% of the average. This will require hotels to better track OTA insights and optimize analytics from guests to gain better, complete visibility.

How far can hotels take digital engagement?

THIERRY BONNIN: What if, by integrating cognitive communications into your front and back office, you could go beyond connection, to proactive engagement? Integrating AI into reservation centers could facilitate guest searches, automate booking confirmations and last-minute deal notifications. Personalized notifications, based on guest location, allow hotels to push promos at the right time, to the perfect place. The back-office enjoys the benefits of digital collaboration, guests enjoy a truly mobile and fully secure experience. Rainbow makes it possible today.

How can location-based services be a game changer in guest engagement?

NICOLAS DUEZ: Location-based services can help hotels that offer powerful personalization gain insight into the guest experience. For example, while guests wait for the shuttle bus, they can pre-check-in and download a mobile key. When they enter the hotel, the staff are notified and greet guests with a personalized arrival. A 3D map offers the guest directions to the room. As the guest passes by the restaurant, a welcome voucher is sent. In the room, the guest discovers the AC is malfunctioning the application provides access to support. The following day, when the guest heads out to meet a partner, they can easily find their car in the 5-story parking garage.

NICOLAS DUEZ WLAN GROUP LEADER CONNECT ON LINKEDIN

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Having data on guests will directly influence how effective digital strategies are for hotels. Providing digital and more automated touchpoints will only resonate if they are in line with what a particular brands’ guests want.

Hoteliers were asked to home in on specific reasons for choosing to automate a service that formerly required a human touch. Overwhelmingly the top drivers were “providing a ‘wow’ factor for guests” and “providing a frictionless experience for guests.” Less than half of hoteliers were focusing on employee-facing factors of automation, with 43% naming reducing human error and 28% looking to reduce workforce.

With less focus being placed on employee-facing automation, hoteliers remain less confident in staff mobilization. Compared to other areas polled, hotels are least confident in how they have mobilized employees, with 28% saying they lag competition.

Figure 5

TOP INSIGHTS GATHERED VIA HOTEL NETWORK

16%

Guest profile data/CRM information

Social profile information

OTA data

Guests’ positions/flow

Internet usage data

Applications usage

Room automation data

Building management data

Employees’ positions/flow

74%

33%

32%

28%

25%

21%

16%

16%

SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT:

Digital guest engagement and staff mobilization, all in one solution

Rainbow is a cloud-based, as-a-service communication engine that seamlessly integrates into a hotel’s eco-system and provides enhanced guest connection and across the house collaboration. Not only does it allow a continuous, multi-channel guest engagement and intelligence, but it provides advanced features such as AI integration, interactive kiosks, voice recognition and PMS. It can enable digital collaboration between teams and partners’ eco-systems with audio/video calls and screen sharing for staff.

Try it for your team, for free!

“The main drivers for automating a service formerly requiring a human touch are the

‘wow’ factor for guests and providing a frictionless experience’.

SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT:

IoT Containment for Hospitality provides a simple, automated process for IoT device onboarding and assignment to the appropriate, secure network. It supplies the correct network resources for the IoT system to run and provides a secure environment against cyberattacks and data loss. Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise provides a multi-level security strategy, delivering protection from individual user and device to the network layer. An IoT containment strategy simplifies and secures device onboarding and delivers the right network resources to run the system properly and efficiently, all in a secure environment.

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Strategy & Investment

To weather the rapid pace of change that the digital evolution has thrust upon all industries, investment and systems integration will be key to future-ready businesses. Unfortunately, hoteliers name these as top impediments to a digital transformation (Fig. 6). About a quarter of hoteliers (24%) are frustrated by vendors not offering appropriate or desired technology solutions. This is more keenly felt by digital engagement leaders, as almost half of those innovators (47%) name this a top issue hampering hotels’ digital transformation. As guests are more likely to have advanced technologies in their own homes, this is a challenge that will persist unless solution providers can stay a step ahead of consumer demands.

A comeback of in-room automation?

With this, hotels are placing greater importance on in-room automation. More than half (53%) of hotels prioritize in-room automation as a component of an Internet of Thigs strategy. Guest mobility and digital engagement leaders put even more emphasis on in-room automation (Fig. 7). With more guests having voice-activated systems like Google Home or Alexa to control systems in their own homes, hotels are finding it necessary to implement these capabilities or risk seeming antiquated.

TOTAL RESPONDENTS DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT GUEST MOBILITY INTERNET OF THINGS

TECH OBJECTIVES FOR AN INTERNET OF THINGS INFRASTRUCTURE

“Self-professed IoT leaders are less concerned with security as a technology priority.”

53% 80%

32%11%

30% 44%

41%

41% 47%

42% 44%

13%

7%

76%In-room automation

Building management/maintenance

Location-based marketing

Labor/workforce

Security/Emergency

Communications

Asset/People tracking

Supply chain

Figure 7

Figure 6

BARRIERS TO DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

60% Financial investment

53% Systems integration

36% Securing networks and Personally Identifiable Information (PII)

32% Maintaining systems

24% Vendors don’t offer solutions needed

11% Inadequate bandwidth

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Tech upgrades and rollouts to support digital transformationComparing where hotels are today on their digital transformation journey to where they expect to be by 2020, there will be rapid and wide expansion with technology across the board. Asking hoteliers to evaluate a list of 15 technologies, only four exceeded 50% of hotels having the technology in place in 2018. Looking ahead to 2020, more than half of hoteliers expect to have all but three of the technologies rolled out (Fig. 8).

Enjoying a usage surge will be location-based technologies and mobile key. Mobile key adoption has been sluggish, with only 16% of hotels offering the technology. Hoteliers’ assumption that consumers didn’t want or wouldn’t utilize the technology, proves to be false with 45% of hotel guests saying they want the option to use smartphones to access rooms, according to Hospitality Technology’s 2017 Customer Engagement Technology Study. With guests tethered to devices and using them as a remote controls for their lives, enabling room access via smartphone will shift from a perk to expectation.

Looking ahead to 2020, hotels do anticipate turning attention to staff mobility. This is an area where hotels have lagged (28% said they are behind their competitors). By 2020, however, 68% of hotels expect to have employee mobile apps deployed.

Leaders will differentiate themselves in several key areas. First Artificial Intelligence/voice activated systems will be in place for 45% of overall hotels by 2020, but 83% of digital engagement leaders will innovate here. They will also look to establish location-based services (88%) and mobile key (75%) within two years.

Guest WiFi is still a top amenity in current tech rollouts and upgrades. How to choose the right solution?

ANNA MATA: About 65% of guests use your Wi-Fi within seven minutes of arriving at your hotel, proving that WiFi is still a top amenity. Before choosing their wireless solution, hoteliers need to consider several things: • Does it provide enough bandwidth

for in-room wired and wireless devices so that guests don’t have to compete for a quality access?

• Does it offer enough throughput for high quality video streaming, VoIP and mobile devices?

• Aesthetic and comfort considerations: Are room Access Points (AP) too big, invasive or disturbing guests during the night? In addition to the rooms and lobby, other areas of the hotel such as, the pool, parking spaces, gardens, terraces, golf courses should be considered. How will high-density areas such as, crowded rooms, auditoriums and restaurants be managed?

CURRENTLY HAVE WILL HAVE BY 2020 NEW RANKING

TECH UPGRADES & ROLLOUTS TO SUPPORT DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

1

24

3

56

5

87

Guest WiFi

CRM/Loyalty

Smart TVs/Streaming services

Digital Signage

Customer Mobile App

Building management technology

Analytics

Employee-Facing Mobile App

Tablets (front-desk)

In-room automation

Mobile Key

Location-based tech

Tablets (in-room)

AI/Voice activated services

Biometrics

95% 99%

92%

88%

73%

58%

57% 89%

49% 84%

76%42%

36% 84%

28% 68%

25% 61%

24% 67%

22% 72%

15% 73%

15% 38%

45%5%

4%25%

AREAS POISED FOR GROWTH • TOP TIER: Location-based tech, mobile key, and analytics

• NEXT TIER: In-room automation, AI/voice

Figure 8

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Customer Survey Optimizing a Digital Evolution in Hospitality

Roadblocks to Digital Infrastructures

One way hotels can add future-ready technology is to move systems above property. Cloud-based infrastructures can provide more flexibility and are becoming the defacto standards operating procedure for businesses. This is especially true for companies that are positioning themselves as leaders. Innovators in digital engagement, guest mobility and IoT place cloud slightly higher in priority than average. Despite this, 21% of hotels still feel that they lag their competitors in cloud-based strategies and rollouts.

Companies slow to adopt above-property systems identify myriad reasons for hesitation. Two challenges rise to the top for 51% of hotels — integration with existing infrastructure and security concerns. These impediments emerged as leading challenges by a fair margin. The next barrier is the cost involved of enhancing bandwidth. Moving systems above property requires robust, reliable networks, which is increasingly problematic as hotels struggle to keep up with operational and guest-facing demands on bandwidth.

Hotels face an array of pressures on the network as the majority of executives see swelling bandwidth demands hitting by 2020. While today less than half of hotels see networks strained by guests streaming content (39%), by 2020 it becomes problematic for 73% of hotels. Similarly, guests with multiple devices is taxing for 37% of hotel networks today, but will be straining 62% of networks within two years.

Exponential growth of technology will bring opportunities to leaders who embrace the digital evolution, however it will require thoughtful and strategic applications of technology to support the enterprise from both a customer-facing and operational perspective.

Why Cloud; Why Now?

LAURENT BOUCHOUCHA: Technology can help hotels improve the guest experience and operations with powerful WiFi, mobile applications, connected objects and IoT, among others. Do hotels need to double budgets and resources to adopt all of these technologies? A cloud solution allows hotels to have the best of both worlds: intelligence and simplicity! With cloud-based network management, user experience is optimized and frees IT teams from time consuming tasks like low-level configurations and monitoring server capacity.

LAURENT BOUCHOUCHA CLOUD VP BUSINESS DEVELOPMENTCONNECT ON LINKEDIN

SOLUTION SPOTLIGHT

Access points especially created for the hospitality industryThe Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess® Stellar WLAN product line delivers enterprise-grade connectivity, with operational-manageability. High-speed WiFi with the best radio coverage is simple to deploy and scale. It provides high performance and easy connectivity for guests and staff and offers IoT readiness with secure and automatic devices connection in separate containers. One AP per room is sufficient for wired and wireless devices with PoE or DC power and blank and discrete room APs, with disabled LEDs for guest comfort. One wall box covers all Ethernet and legacy phone cables. Adapted APs are available for common areas, high-density spaces and ruggedized for outdoor.

“By 2020, 73% of hotels see network

strained by guests streaming content”

www.al-enterprise.com The Alcatel-Lucent name and logo are trademarks of Nokia used under license by ALE. To view other trademarks used by affiliated companies of ALE Holding, visit: www.al-enterprise.com/en/legal/trademarks-copyright. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information presented is subject to change without notice. Neither ALE Holding nor any of its affiliates assumes any responsibility for inaccuracies contained herein. © 2018 ALE International. All rights reserved. 00315855EN (September 2018)

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Visit our Hospitality industry page:

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Discover more hospitality resources:

Hospitality Customer References https://www.al-enterprise.com/-/media/assets/internet/documents/customer-reference-hospitality-ebook-en.pdf

10 Misconceptions about Hospitality Mobility: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/gated-assets/hospitality-10-misconceptions-ebook

The Hospitality Mobility Toolbox: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/gated-assets/hospitality-going-mobile

The Winery Hotel - the hotel that has everything: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/gated-assets/winery-hotel-whitepaper

Internet of Things for Hospitality: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/gated-assets/hospitality-iot-en Hospitality Network Guide: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/gated-assets/hospitality-network-guide

Location-based services for Hospitality: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/industries/hospitality/location-based-services

Stellar Wi-Fi for Hospitality: http://conversation.alcatel-lucent.com/en-stellar-mobility-wifi-hospitality

Digital guest and staff engagement: https://www.al-enterprise.com/en/industries/hospitality/rainbow