Nomadix
Keeping Guests Connected and Coming Back

The demand for guest Internet bandwidth in hospitality is at an all-time high. Many estimates place bandwidth demand doubling about every six to nine months in hotels. A large percentage of guests decide where to stay based off the quality and priority of Internet access–and a poor experience with Internet quality can break the guest experience and their loyalty. For this reason, hotels and other hospitality entities are under increasing pressure to meet the demands being placed upon them by guests who carry multiple devices (BYOD) and want to surf the Web, play video games or stream movies–activities that all use a lot of bandwidth.

California-based Nomadix provides solutions that enable bandwidth allocation for different uses so that every guest receives a fair share of bandwidth for an optimal experience. Said Nomadix Chief Commercial & Operating Officer Fred Reeder, “Through our secure, easy-to-use and reliable high-speed Internet gateways and bandwidth management tools, we help hotels provide a better user experience for guests and a higher likelihood to return to that property.”

Nomadix solutions also provide a class-based queuing system that allows IT staff to allocate bandwidth by priority, location or class, such as guest loyalty. The gateways have up to five ports that can be allocated to WAN links to create the ability to dedicate certain ports to certain areas within the hotel. For example, two gigabit throughput ports can be dedicated to convention areas and the other port can be allocated to the rest of the hotel.

The hospitality industry was the first to openly embrace the concept of a visitor’s network. Nomadix is widely considered to have invented the market for visitor-based networking and the technology to address both controlled access and the unpredictable nature of a visitor-based network. In a visitor or guest network, strangers are purposely allowed inside network, unlike a corporate network that keeps intruders out. The Nomadix Service Engine (NSE) adds a layer of protection to users from perpetrators who might already be present inside the guest network.

NSE can interface with most of the world’s property management systems and can manage bandwidth by application prioritization, while tracking the usage and generating real-time reports for both the guest network and the back of house network.

The desire to track and report on Internet bandwidth usage by application type, location and time of day has only increased for hoteliers. Our solutions allow hoteliers to drill down to very specific parameters and determine patterns of behavior to shape traffic accordingly

“The ability to drill down to specific categories of guests and provision bandwidth accordingly is very beneficial to the hospitality industry–and many hotels, resorts and cruise ships around the world count on us to do just that,” said Reeder.

One property that counts on Nomadix is Hayman–a remote, private island resort in Australia. Hayman had difficulty with its high-speed Internet access service provider and was therefore unable to deliver the interfaces and integrations needed to properly serve their guests. Once Hayman began using a Nomadix Internet access gateway, the property increased the pervasiveness and quality of their Internet connection to help guests stay connected, which ultimately increased guest satisfaction.

To keep pace with the ever-changing needs of the hospitality industry, Nomadix stays in close contact with many of the major hotel brands like Marriott and Hyatt. Nomadix also works closely with service providers to provide reliable solutions that properties can count on to effectively service guests and keep them coming back.

Moving ahead, Nomadix foresees a trend of consolidation of network appliances and/or moving capabilities into the cloud, which will keep costs down for hotels and service providers alike. Additionally, as the demand for predictive analytics continues to grow, Nomadix plans to venture into this area to provide real-time based solutions that will help hotels achieve their ultimate goal of “keeping heads on beds.”