Video content uses a lot more bandwidth that text based content such as email.  As a result, hotels have seen bandwidth consumption by guests double year-on-year over the last couple of years. With the added ease of streaming TV and Movies, I am sure you have already observed an even greater growth in band width requirements.

Guests are now checking in with multiple devices.  40% of guests have 2 or more Wi-Fi devices and 25% have 3 or more Wi-Fi devices.  If there are 2 individuals in a room , they could easily each watch their favourite TV Show or Movie via your Internet service

In addition, when it comes to the quality of the Internet service you provide to your guests, they expect it to be just as good as they have at home, if not better, and if they have a bad experience they may not return to your property.

So both factors - more devices per guest, and the increased demand for bandwidth due the video-centric nature of what they access has put a lot of pressure on your available bandwidth.

This is a whole topic in its own right.  However, in my opinion with the increasing demand for more bandwidth it is going to be difficult for hotels to provide an unlimited Internet service for free.  Instead, I believe that a tiered service will be the most common way forward for guest Internet access.

Under a tiered solution there could be an entry level service for free or at a very nominal fee which is mainly for emails and web browsing, and then a higher level offer which is user pays. There could even be a couple of levels of service that provide differing levels of bandwidth /download and allow for more devices to be simultaneously connected.

By example, a business traveller may need to access emails and do a little web research - they would select a service offering at the lower end of the scale.

Another business traveller may have 3 devices; a laptop, an iPad, a Smartphone, they may want all three of them connected.  In addition, this person may be doing some video conferencing which is bandwidth intensive so they would choose a plan at the higher end of the tiered structure which is appropriate to meet their requirements.

If you are offering a tiered service, I believe it is imperative that your bandwidth be segregated or compartmentalised so that those guests that are paying for the better service actually get it.  To give you an example, let's say you have a 40 Mb connection into your property so via the server that provides guest Internet you may allocate 6 Mb to the Free Service, 14 Mb to the first tier chargeable service and 20 Mb to the second tier chargeable service.  This will ensure that those paying for the Premium Service receive a premium service and those that have the lower end service receive that and cannot impact on the Premium Service offering.

A dramatic increase in demand for bandwidth from your guests.  The key for hotels is to provide them with the infrastructure and the bandwidth to ensure their stay is wonderful.

How do you Handle this Increase in bandwidth Requirements?

My advice, review your Internet offering and ensure you have enough bandwidth and your  provider can segregate and pool your bandwidth so you can offer a genuine tiered level of service for Internet access to your guests.

The ideal scenario is a free or nominal fee entry level offer and another tier or 2 of premium Internet Access.  This will ensure guests who want a premium experience will receive it and those who are accept the entry level offer get what they pay for - harsh words but you need to have a way of managing use of your available bandwidth as continuously increasing bandwidth to quell guest complaints will result is your costs spiralling out of control.