More amenities require Internet access

No longer is the guest who wants to check e-mail after a long day the sole reason for a strong Internet connection in the guestroom. Today, permanent guestroom technologies like televisions, phones and energy-management systems operate by connecting to the broadband network.Therefore, installing a solid network to each and every guestroom is crucial.

Jim Bina is president of Millennium Technology Group, which provides information technology services to seven Rosen Hotels and Resorts properties in Florida. Bina was instrumental in building the IT infrastructure at Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, which opened in September 2006 and boasts 1,500 guestrooms and 445,000 square feet of meeting space.

“[Internet protocol] convergence was important to Rosen Shingle Creek,” Bina said. “It’s a very technically advanced property. I like to say we could contact Mars from here.”

Only two wires run to each guestroom: one Cat 6 wire delivering high-speed Internet and connecting the energy-conservation system, and one coaxial cable wire delivering cable TV. Currently, the phone and cable are still using traditional service, but are set up and will be operating on an IP-based system soon.

Jim DeVore, director of information and technology at the Hamilton Park Hotel and Conference Center in New Jersey, said he sees a daily shift in bandwidth usage at his property in the evening. Once meeting groups leave the meeting space and head back to their guestrooms, the hotel network sees a major spike in activity.

“Guests are doing a lot more streaming of different things in the guestroom,” DeVore said. “They’re listening to high-definition radio or streaming TV shows. Those are two things we didn’t even see two years ago.”

In the numbers
40 percent rise in bandwidth usage once New York Palace Hotel installed wireless Internet
Source: Jeff Wolf, director of information technology
5 permanent T1 lines running through the balancer at Hamilton Park Hotel
Source: Jim DeVore, director of information and technology
2 wires running to each guestroom at Rosen Shingle Creek
Source: Jim Bina, president of Millennium Technology Group
7,000 maximum amount of people who could connect to Internet in Rosen Shingle Creek’s meeting space
Source: Jim Bina, president of Millennium Technology Group