If you run a small bar or a 5 stars hotel you share the need to offer an internet broadband connection to your customers; however, if the need is the same, the technological solution is as different as the channel partner that can help you.

Technological scenario.
There are many variables to analyze in a hospitality project in order to select the best technological solution.  To simplify, we can concentrate on 4 technological quadrants (fig 1) composed by the combination of these 4 basic hospitality needs:
- 3Play.
In this case the host wants to offer Video (IPTV and/or OTT), VOIP and Broadband connexion in each room as a single service.
- Wifi.
In this case the host wants to offer a wifi broadband solution completely isolated by the television and phone service.
- PMS.
The host wants to bill all the services (including the internet broadband) through the Property Management Software (PMS).
- Ticket.
The host wants to bill the broadband service in a manual way, usually through a simple ticket.

Fig 1 – Hospitality technological Scenario

Technological solutions.
- Quadrant I.
A cloud solution allows managing a WiFi broadband coverage  together with the printing of a simple ticket for the customer.
As all cloud services, the channel can buy the service from a vendor (for example EnGenius-Cloudtrax - ) or to build the service itself  (see Quadrant IV).
-  Quadrant II.
In this case a hot spot appliance must be locally integrated with the other IP appliances for VOIP and IPTV/OTT.  (for example 4ipnet Wireless Hotspot - ).
- Quadrant III.
All services are linked to a specific room. They can be supplied on a copper DSL line and separeted by Virtual Lans.  The billing is linked to the room number.
All this simplifies the architecture scenario.  A Hospitality Service Gateway is usually the best solution (for example ZyXEL VSG-1200 - ).
- Quadrant IV.
In this scenario it is necessary to manage a complex Wifi connection with hot spot functionalities and billing through a PMS. The billing of the Wifi services is not linked to a specific room number. At the state of the art, the best solution is to connect the WIFI Hot Spot Controller to the PMS through a dedicated Middleware (for example 4ipnet Secure WLAN Controller - and the midleware of Eurofluxo).
The Hardware appliance used in this Quadrant has the same characteristics of the one used in quadrant I to supply the cloud service.  It is likely to conclude that  the actor that succeeds in Quadrant IV has also good chance to offer a cloud service in Quadrant I.

Channel Actors.
Still simplifying, , we can identify three main actors in the channel of hospitality (see fig 2):
- ISP.
They supply the broadband connection and usually have also experience in the IPTV, OTT  and VOIP. They usually have also a sound knowledge of Wifi technology.
- It resellers.
They have a good knowledge of WIFI technology and Networking infrastructure (including cable TV). They can also have good knowledge of analogical and IP phone.
- Billing providers.
They are the expert of  the implementation of the PMS of the hotel.

Fig 2 – Channel actors in Hospitality

What we are observing now, is an effort of the ISP and IT reseller to enter in the  Quadrant IV.  On the contrary, the  Billing providers are not so much interested to enter in the  infrastructure complexity of this Quadrant.  So, ISP and IT Resellers must establish a strategic alliance with Billing providers if they want to succeed in this scenario.

Whatever is the actor of the channel, it is his responsibility to inform the host that the police might came to him and asks specific information regarding the activity of his customers as required by the  Data Retention Directive.

Data Retention Directive.
(DIRECTIVE 2006/24/EC - on the retention of data generated or processed in connection with the provision of publicly available electronic communications services or of public communications networks) was introduced in 2006 after the bomb attack in London as a measure against international terrorism.
In the case of commercial data retention, the data retained will usually be on transactions and web sites visited.
The adoption of this directive for each European Country is not at all homogeneous. Also for this reason, the Directive has been recently (May 2011) strongly criticized even by the European Data Protection Supervisor - .
However, this Directive must be closely monitored by any channel operator in the hospitality business and… he must be sure to offer a solution that can save a detailed log on a NAS.

Do you see other opportunities for the channel in the hospitality business?
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To know more:
- How to set up a Cloud Mesh Wifi Networking for Hospitality.