So the million dollar question is how can hotels make their WiFi service more profitable?
The perfect solution to this problem is to monetize WiFi hotspots. It gives the guests access to WiFi and at the same time, lets the hotel recover its cost. Win-win!
Here are 5 innovative ways that hotels can use to monetize their guest WiFi:
#1 Tiered Service
You can provide a basic service free of cost to all customers and offer higher speeds at a cost. The basic service should let guests access their social media and browse websites. The paid option should let guests stream videos and movies easily. You can also offer multiple tiers of paid WiFi at varying speeds. What’s more, the hotels can charge the customer for paid guest WiFi service in the final bill so that the experience for customers to move from free to paid is simply 1 click.
#2 Portal Advertisements
Invite the local businesses to display ads on the portal login page with in-store guest WiFi and charge them for such advertisements. With this WiFi for hospitality marketing, they can offer special discounts for hotel guests. The businesses thus will get a chance to increase their revenue and the hotel gets to recover the cost of providing free WiFi with guest WiFi promotions.
#3 Promote Hotel Amenities
The portal page can also be used to promote in-house restaurants, bars or spas. It can display attractive offers which will compel guests to visit these amenities. If you offer a coupon for a free dessert, then most probably the guests will end up having the whole meal at the hotel restaurant instead of visiting elsewhere. The profit from the appetizers and entrees will be your profit. This will definitely go beyond paying for the WiFi.
#4 Direct Ordering
The guest portal page or a pop-up splash/landing page that gets displayed when a guest uses the WiFi can provide links for direct ordering of room service, local specialties etc. The same guest portal can be used to reserve tables at the hotel’s restaurants, conference rooms, and banquet halls. This splash page can also enable guests to request specific TV programs, book transport, and enable telephone privileges.
#5 Surveys
Hotels constantly look for ways to make their customer’s stay more comfortable and customer feedback is valuable for this. You can provide free WiFi service for a limited duration and for continued access to WiFi after that duration, guests would have to fill a survey. The short but relevant survey can get you all the data you need to improve your customer services. Since the users are connected to WiFi and you have their basic information, it would be easy to categorize and process the results from the survey and work upon the grievances.
Put Your WiFi to Work!
WiFi marketing may be a necessity for a good hotel, but it does add to the cost. By using one or more of the ideas mentioned above, hotels can easily recover the cost of the WiFi and also end up making additional profits. To learn more about the different ways to do so, contact us here.
One thought on “5 Innovative Ways to Monetize Guest WiFi for Hotels”
You make a good point that the portal page can display different hotel amenities that will inform guests of what options they have. Plus, this wouldn’t get in the way of the guest using the WiFi so it wouldn’t be a bother. It would also be good to make sure the WiFi is fast to connect to so the guests won’t just skip the portal page.