If you need internet access for your meetings, you know how expensive and frustrating it can be. Most hotels and their AV partners fail to deliver the level of service you deserve, and the cost of that poor service is way too high! Use our three insider tips to help you save money, improve your internet experience, and develop a long-term strategy for buying internet at your next meeting.
Come to the Negotiating Table with Data
A seasoned meeting planner would never book a room block or set a food and beverage minimum without good data. This includes information like pick-up and no-show reports, session attendance, attrition data, and demographic details about the attendees. For some reason, meeting planners buy Wi-Fi and custom networking every day without any data at all.
Start your next contract negotiation from a position of confidence. Provide your sales contact with hotel bandwidth reports, Wi-Fi user counts, and invoices from past events. Demonstrate to your venue shortlist that you understand exactly what you need and approximately what it should cost based on the market.
If you don’t have this data, now is the time to start collecting it. Many hotels, like Marriott, provide reports on bandwidth usage as a standard practice. As a condition of your next hotel contract, make sure they are capable of generating these reports for you.
Stop Asking for Free Wi-Fi
For many convention and luxury hotels, free Wi-Fi is a thing of the past. If your meeting will fail without reliable internet access, come to the negotiating table with a realistic budget. This gesture demonstrates that you appreciate their investment in modern equipment and knowledgeable technical support.
It is important to remember that installing and maintaining a modern hotel network is expensive. Just like their commercial kitchens, guest elevators, and swimming pools, hotel owners spend millions of dollars each year modernizing and upgrading their internet systems.
Investing in their services will help you maintain and uphold a higher standard of quality.
Quality Should Determine Price
Under perfect circumstances, the life cycle of hotel network infrastructure is only 5-6 years.
Before signing your next event contract, make sure to ask your chosen venues for a Network Logical, an Access Point Map, and a Wi-Fi Heat Map. Also, inquire with the hotel about the timing and details of their network upgrades. This information will give you important insights into the quality of the hotel’s network and the expertise of the on-site support team.
Quality should determine the price. If your next hotel has not invested in the long-term success of their network, then you should not pay a high price. Asking the right questions will help you know how much you should pay.
If you’re not sure where to begin, we can assist you. Our team will help you figure out the type of internet access you truly require, assess the capabilities of your chosen venues, negotiate a reasonable price, and travel with you to ensure accountability and performance.
