The Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel in Singapore has blanketed its premises with Wi-Fi connectivity by deploying Ruckus Wireless’ ZoneFlex Smart Wi-Fi solution, thereby improving customer experience overall.

In addition to providing reliable guest access, the new Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi system will play a key role in supporting the hotel’s new service optimization system (MTech HotSOS) a rapid response application that is currently being implemented by the Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel. HotSOS is a popular hospitality application that enables hotel staff in housekeeping, catering, and engineering to respond to guests more efficiently via handheld wireless devices

The 558-room Grand Mercure deployed 150 units of Ruckus ZoneFlex 7300 series of low-profile Smart Wi-Fi 802.11n access points (APs) along with a ZoneDirector 3150 Smart Wi-Fi WLAN controller to support wireless access for guests as well as to enhance staff communications and collaboration from anywhere within the hotel, enabling them to provide speedier, more attentive and personalized guest experience.

“Hotel technologies evolve around guest demands. Surge of smartphones and tablets is driving the hospitality industry to think more strategically about wireless – how to connect these devices reliably while leveraging them to render better services,” said Louis Au, VP of APAC at Ruckus Wireless. “We are very excited that Grand Mercure Roxy joins other leading hotels and resorts around the world that have adopted and standardized on Ruckus Smart Wi-Fi systems to meet the increasing demand by guests for wireless Internet connectivity.”

Ubiquitous Wireless Coverage at Hotels is No Longer Negotiable
The need for Grand Mercure Roxy to upgrade their wireless Internet service arose from increasing guest demands for reliable wireless Internet connectivity throughout the entire hotel. During the past few years, Grand Mercure Roxy has seen a dramatic increase, from 40 to 80 percent, in guests accessing Internet using Wi-Fi technology.

“We noticed recently that there was a significant change in guests’ priorities when they choose a hotel. High speed wireless broadband connection is now on top of the list with more people wanting to access the Internet using their smartphones and mobile devices anywhere on the premise,” said Kevin Bossino, General Manager, Grand Mercure Roxy Hotel.

“Unfortunately, our legacy system provided spotty coverage, resulting in uneven Wi-Fi reception in certain areas within the hotel. In addition, the previous Wi-Fi system wasn’t able to deliver the capacity needed to cope with the deluge of smartphone usage. The combination of better signal coverage and controls with higher speed 802.11n technology solved these problems, giving us the opportunity to look at more applications that we could enable wirelessly,” said Bossino.

Needed: Simply Better Connections, Everywhere
After conducting trials with competitive wireless products, the Grand Mecure found the Ruckus Wireless Smart Wi-Fi system to provide much broader coverage with fewer access points and respond better and faster to surges in wireless Internet usage.