The Bonnington Hotel & Residences JLT has upgraded its wireless network, leveraging Aruba solutions, to deliver seamless high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity to all business and leisure guests across its hotel rooms, suites and public areas. The deployment has improved wireless internet coverage in the hotel by 95% and boosted performance by 85%, allowing guests to enjoy internet access across the premises with guaranteed speed, reliability and security.
Prior to the deployment, the Bonnington’s ageing Wi-Fi infrastructure failed to deliver a service that met guests’ expectations. “While the capabilities of our 24Mbps leased line were at the time sufficient, the drop in performance introduced by the wireless part of our network meant guests rarely experienced the speeds we intended to deliver. They often suffered loss of coverage at ‘dead spots’ around our property,” said Dilhan Devaditiya, IT Manager at the Bonnington. “With Wi-Fi becoming ever more important to our guests, we were eager to raise the quality of this service to the extremely high standard set by the other facilities in our hotel.”
Backed with the support of hotel’s board members, Devaditiya and his IT team conducted a thorough four month evaluation of solutions from four leading wireless solutions vendors. Aruba was selected on account of two main factors. “For one, both Aruba and its partner Precedence Technologies went out of their way to assist us during the evaluation, consultation and design phases. Even before being awarded the project, they provided us with a level of support and commitment that was truly remarkable. This together with the compact and aesthetically designed Aruba wireless Access Point, which blended in nicely in our rooms, made it a rather straightforward decision.”
The deployment included two Aruba 7210 Mobility Controllers of which one was used purely for redundancy; 208 Aruba AP-103H Access Points, one for each room/suite; and 15 Aruba AP-205 APs for the public areas including the lobby, meeting rooms, bars and restaurants. Aruba’s mobility controllers have given the Bonnington’s IT team the ability to centrally manage the entire network which has significantly reduced the strain on resources, while the Access Points have delivered intelligent features such as automatic steering of guest devices to the best AP, minimising interference from cellular networks and wireless intrusion prevention.
“Thanks to meticulous planning, the professionalism of our team, and the quality of Aruba’s products and services, we managed to complete the implementation in just under three weeks. Best of all, there was no inconvenience to guests despite the deployment being carried out during one of the busiest times of the year for the hotel,” Hamid Shaikh, Co-Founder & Chief Technology Officer of Precedence.
Graeme Kane, Hospitality Business Development Manager at Aruba Networks said, “At Aruba, we pride ourselves on building and establishing long lasting relationships with our clients. To this end, we take the time to understand their technical and business needs before recommending solutions that strike the right balance between technical specifications and costs. Bonnington was no different and I believe we have provided a solution that meets their expectations in terms of performance, ease of deployment, management and aesthetics.”
