A group of MBA students from my alma mater in the United States visited China a few months ago on a research trip to meet with Chinese government organizations and American companies. In Beijing they stayed at the 5-star Peninsula Hotel on Wangfujing Avenue and they said that getting online through the hotel's broadband system occurred without a hitch. They simply plugged their laptop computers into the terminals and their computers automatically found a connection.
But when they visited Shanghai they had problems with the high-speed Internet access at a different 5-star hotel–I'll keep the name of the hotel anonymous, but it's one of the elites of a major international hotel chain. For some in the group, no connectivity apparently existed in their respective hotel rooms, and for others the staff were not able to assist them with getting online. Many instead used a business center while others used nearby Internet cafes.
As a frequent traveler and visitor to hotels and airport lounges, I understand the anxiety and frustration that can occur when an Internet connection is not readily accessible. But it is not possible, yet, to rely on a great Internet connection to match the other top-notch services of a hotel or airline. A hotel might have caviar on the menu, but providing something as fundamental as Internet connectivity to frequent business travelers eludes many in the hospitality sector.
Michael Iannini, manager of CANDIS, a US-based broadband company operating in Beijing and Shanghai has seen these types of problems before. The Kempinski Hotel in Beijing is among the many past and current hotel clients which have used CANDIS's Internet system to help guests get online with ease. Iannini says, The technology factor is only 50% of the service. The next half, and sometimes the most important half, is having skilled employees who can troubleshoot and help guests with common network connection problems. The skills involved are really not that complex.
But it is not just the hospitality industry's fault that connectivity is so tough. Travelers have all sorts of computers and gizmos that need Internet connections, and wading through the disparate embedded software and finding solutions to problems quite often should not be the hotel's mission.
Two similar travelers, each with IBM Thinkpad T43 notebook computers, might have different software to get online. Why? Because one might be using a Microsoft operating system and the other a Linux one. If each traveler is confronted with connectivity problems, it is very difficult for the hotel network technician (if one is employed full-time at the hotel), or usually the bellboy, to understand the entire working environment of each computer to assess if the problem is the hotel's or the traveler's.
What can a hotel do to alleviate these types of problems? First, I suggest drafting a well-written guide for hotels to provide to users when they want to get online. The guide explains any IP addresses, gateway configurations, or proxies that users will need to access the hotel's network. The Air China First Class Lounge in Beijing's Capital Airport has this information pasted to each computer-ready desk and makes both my flight and online connections a breeze. Companies like CANDIS will often assist clients to craft documents for use by guests.
Second, train at last three hotel staff–one for each shift–in basic computer networking skills. Trust me, they do not need to know how to make a whiz computer program. All they need to do is learn how to use a few simple hardware and software tools that will assist in troubleshooting guests' problems. The training can be done by a company like CANDIS in about three hours and each staff should be re-schooled at least once every six months to stay abreast of new technologies.
Finally, even if the Internet is broken in the guests' rooms, for some reason the computers in the hotels' business centers are always working. Add a wireless lounge in the business center where guests can go for use of free Internet. The real costs for a major hotel in Beijing and Shanghai should be about 500-1000RMB a month for a lounge like this that can hold about a dozen business travelers. With such a low cost, adding free wireless for guests in one area (or throughout the hotel) can reap much more revenue in the future.
I stayed at the budget Motel 168 in Shanghai last year and getting online was simple, but then I had problems getting online in the China Mobile VIP lounge at the Beijing Capital Airport. There seems to be no pattern: low-end outlets sometimes can have great Internet features while high-class joints can lack these necessities. Internet connectivity is now just as important to travelers as clean sheets and a wake-up call. And with email a vital component of travelers' lives, many business travelers will ignore a great view in favor of Windows.
By Danny Levinson
Publisher, ChinaHospitalityNews.com
Danny has worked in China for over 8 years and travels frequently, mostly to Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai. His views are his own and do not represent those of this publication, its investors, owners, or other staff. To comment on this article please email Danny at [email protected]–though he can't always promise a response, he will read all messages.