Improved Wi-Fi at MGM Resorts Causes Stir in Hospitality Industry

When a hotel looks to improve its services and attract new customers, what should it focus on? Should rooms be better decorated? Should they provide a complimentary breakfast? When MGM Resorts in Las Vegas was faced with this question, it chose a surprising course of action: improving its wireless coverage. By partnering with Mobilitie LLC and Cisco Systems, MGM Resorts was able to improve its connectivity by 30 percent and provide a range of additional Wi-Fi-related services as well.

Mobilitie, which specializes in providing improved wireless coverage in usage-dense areas such as stadiums or even racehorse tracks, also upped the amount of users that can be supported on the hotels’ Wi-Fi from 4,000 to 120,000. This capability is utilized mainly by convention groups for a premium, but many would find it worth it, since it enables seamless Wi-Fi between all MGM Resorts properties. With this feature, users are free to wander while still having access to Internet, maps and even targeted advertising offers, which are another part of the solution devised for MGM Resorts. Convention-goers can even set up their own private Wi-Fi network to share things like agendas and reminders.

Although these improvements have only been fully implemented in the Bellagio, with implementation in MGM Resorts’ other hotels to follow, it’s sure that they will be well-received. In a study from the Cornell Center for Hospitality, part of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration, it was found that hotels’ implementation of technology is “uneven at best.” In a world where many people are connected to the Internet via not only a computer, but also a phone or tablet, demands for faster Wi-Fi are picking up and the hospitality industry is starting to listen. As Bill Carroll, one of the authors of the study published by the Cornell Center for hospitality, says, “We see how quickly hotels have adopted technology in many areas, but the big question is how well the industry is integrating that technology.”