"As travelers become more familiar and dependent on mobility tools and penetration of WLAN-enabled laptops [increases]," said Wong, "guest preferences will favor hotels that allow them anytime/anywhere access to the information that they need."

Wong said the value of wireless access would initially be driven by the needs of business users. "Visitors attending a business event or taking advantage of the hotel's services also find value in having WLAN access," he said, "as most cannot afford to be out of touch with their work for any extended period."

The Nortel chief said that from the hotel's perspective, the business value of a wireless access strategy is threefold: "attraction of business based on the hotel's wireless capabilities, opportunity for revenue from user access fees and the opportunity to increase the consumption of services from guests and visitors who choose to work in lounge or restaurant areas."

"From a business case perspective, the benefits of investment in a wireless infrastructure extend beyond the value of enhanced delivery of guest services and incremental sources of revenue," said Wong, who added that increasing staff productivity was also important in assessing the value of a property-wide WLAN deployment.

"We needed a system that was upgradeable," said Rogers, who added that the new system helped management communicate guests requests more effectively, and examine CRM facets. "We can now track calls and sort by booking, source, cancellations, giving us more data," he said. "If a guest orders room service, the system can send an SMS to the room attendant, creating a record of each transaction. This helps us deliver timely accurate service, and also allows staff can greet guests by name."