11 July 2014
GLH runs 36 hotels in the UK and its brands include Amba, Clermont, Guoman and Thistle. The company also claims to be the largest hotel owner-operator in London with five luxury properties such as The Royal Horseguards, Charing Cross and The Cumberland.
GLH believes that quick and reliable Wi-Fi connectivity is essential for its guests, and cites research which says this is now a decisive feature when it comes to choosing a hotel. As a result, the company has upgraded its wireless network across its hotels which now offer free, fast and unlimited Wi-Fi in all bedrooms, lobby areas and meeting rooms. It’s available to all guests and visitors and there’s no need to register to gain access.
The company is working with BT which manages the network and is now the telco’s biggest user of free Wi-Fi.
GLH had already done some network upgrades for the 2012 Olympics but knew that offering free Wi-Fi across all its UK hotels would require higher performance and greater increases in capacity.
Previously, the hotels were running Cisco access points (APs) that supported 2.4GHz and these were upgraded to Cisco’s Aironet 1042 802.11n dual band APs that also offer 2.5GHz. On top of that, the internet backhaul was also upgraded using gigabit circuits and Cisco’s Catalyst 2960 Series PoE switches together with Cat6 cabling from Connectix. Around 2,900 APs, including Cisco’s latest Aironet 3702 Series that support 802.11ac, have since been deployed as part of an ongoing network upgrade to gigabit capacity.
GLH says that providing free and easily available Wi-Fi access to all guests and visitors has not led to any issues with network congestion. It says that thanks to gigabit capacity, the network is nowhere near reaching its capacity.
More significantly, the company works with BT to proactively monitor network usage at each of its hotels. It can identify where and when traffic spikes occur, and which of its thousands of APs are seeing the most throughput. Staff at each hotel, such the manager at The Royal Horseguards, have been trained to monitor the networks daily using Fluke’s AirCheck meters. These can instantly show network performance indicators such as the signal strength of each AP, and therefore provide real evidence that can be presented to BT. Any negative feedback from users about the Wi-Fi is instantly acted upon.
GLH is now working with the telco to implement separate SSIDs to cover its back office systems. For example, later this year it plans to run housekeeping apps over the network that allow staff to centrally report when rooms have been cleaned and are ready for their next occupants.
