In today’s experience-driven hospitality market, location and service excellence remain key, but it’s seamless digital connectivity that increasingly determines guest satisfaction and loyalty.
“High-speed, reliable WiFi is now as essential as hot water or clean linen,” says Jesse MacHill, Commercial Director at One80, specialist in network infrastructure solutions from the ground to the cloud. “When guests check into a hotel, resort or casino, they expect the same digital experience they have at home… or better.”
MacHill notes that South Africa’s hospitality sector, reportedly making some gains after the losses suffered after the COVID-19 pandemic, still faces challenges such as stagnant international visitor numbers and economic pressure. In order for them to offer the levels of service guests expect – and thus grow in a competitive market – hotels must focus on key infrastructure like connectivity, he says.
“Guests arrive with fibre-to-the-home expectations. They’re used to 100-megabit connections for gaming, streaming and working remotely,” he says. “If hotels want to compete and grow, they need to deliver that same five-star digital experience. That means more bandwidth, smarter management and connectivity that just works, everywhere.”
Future-proof networks for modern hospitality
MacHill says many hotels still use technology that offers limited control or visibility, giving no real understanding of what is happening on the network. This puts them at risk of delivering sub-par WiFi services to guests and employees.
Despite this, many hospitality businesses still rely on legacy systems that offer limited visibility and control, leaving them blind to performance issues until guests complain.
“With our HPE Aruba solutions, we give customers real-time insight into what’s happening across their networks,” MacHill says. “From any device, managers can see what’s up or down, monitor the guest experience and proactively address issues before they impact operations or reputation.”
One80’s approach gives hotels a single pane of glass for total network management. “We provide full-screen dashboards, live monitoring and proactive alerts. Whether you’re the IT lead, facilities manager or GM, you can ensure every guest and staff member stays connected – from the casino floor to the pool bar.”
“WiFi quality is massively important,” MacHill emphasises. “It’s not just for connecting to work, watching TV or streaming movies in guests’ rooms – it's necessary in the bar area, the casinos, the common areas. It's important for notifications, display information, hotel security and back-of-house operations.”
Data-driven performance and proven reliability
Modern guests and customers are always online, wherever they move throughout the resort or hotel, MacHill notes. He cites the example of one of One80’s customer properties, where 11 000 unique users send and receive over 14 Terabytes of data in one month. One80 ensures that these guests enjoy reliable, high-quality connections with 99.9% uptime wherever they are in the multi-kilometre property.
“We implement the technology stack to deliver a premium experience across the property – whether you're a financial manager, GM, front of house staff, food and beverage teams or five-star guest,” MacHill says.
“What's unique about what One80 offers is the fact that we do end-to-end infrastructures. We’re nimble and agile, pay close attention to detail and offer a high-touch engagement with our customers. Importantly, we’re highly focused, skilled and certified, and we’ve been supporting the 24/7 high-stakes hospitality sector for over 20 years. This means we are also well positioned to support the enterprise sector.”
HPE Networking for service excellence
MacHill says One80 has been deploying HPE Networking solutions at leading hospitality organisations for over five years. “From a technology standpoint, the technology speaks for itself. HPE Aruba – now HPE Networking – has invested heavily in a solution called Central, which offers enhanced network visibility, streamlined network device management and an expanded AI toolset. It's the heartbeat of everything that kind of happens within the HPE network,” he says.
“Central is what gives us the live monitoring, the statistics, the dashboarding, the alerting, monitoring historical data, live logging, automated ticketing. It gives a customer everything that they require. On a single pane of glass, you understand how many guests are connected to your property. You can understand how many APs are up. You can understand how many switches are up. You can understand how many ports are being used. Outside of the premium hardware, the fundamentals of what HPE Networking offers customers is the reason why we do it. Not only do we get the support in-country, we get global support from senior management too.”
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