Hotel Le Dauphin Case Study
Hotel & Resort
"From an economical point of view, it didn't make sense to use anything else. And with over 4,000 unique users across the four hotels, we have received zero complaints."
Pierre Roussil, Hotel Le Dauphin's wireless consultant
Challenge
- Boutique Montreal hotel wanted to offer wireless access to meet growing customer demand.
- Previous bad experience convinced owner existing options were unreliable and expensive.
Results
- A Meraki network was up and running within hours at about 1/5th the cost of competing solutions.
- Hotel Le Dauphin's network has served more than 4,000 unique users without complaint.
- Owner is so pleased, has deployed Meraki networks across 3 more of his hotels.
The owner of Hotel Le Dauphin faced a conundrum. He had installed internet-connected computers in every room in his hotel, but the amenity was no longer serving guests' needs; guests wanted to use their own laptops and PDAs.
"I'm a techie, and I know these things never work right out of the box. But we were surprised; we just plugged them in and voila, it worked! The hotel owner basically gave us carte blanche after that to deploy throughout the whole property."
At one of the hotelier's other properties, a vendor had deployed a single wireless access point on each floor. The signal was so poor and the network so unreliable, the owner refused to advertise it. As a result, he was wary about making another large capital investment in wireless technology that might cost more and require more work than it was worth.
The owner turned to IT consultant Pierre Roussil for a solution. Roussil faced budget constraints as well as the hotelier's skepticism. "We started out looking for wireless routers that had sensible pricing," he said. "That's how we found Meraki. From an economical point of view, it didn't make sense to use anything else." Another vendor from the UK that Roussil contacted was charging upwards of $500 per access point.
Meraki's Dashboard was another major selling point. "Meraki had a great web interface, and neither of us are programmers," he says. "We like to be able to maintain and monitor the network ourselves."
Roussil took his first three Meraki devices, plugged them in and hid them inside the hotel's false ceiling. He had the beginnings of a network up and running within 2 days, proving the solution's viability to Hotel Le Dauphin's proprietor. "I'm a techie, and I know these things never work right out of the box," he says. "But we were surprised; we just plugged them in and voila, it worked! The hotel owner basically gave us carte blanche after that to deploy throughout the whole property."
The hotelier himself had shopped around for a solution, but the next most inexpensive quote he received - which was still pricier than Roussil's Meraki-based quote - could not guarantee a strong signal in every single guestroom.
The owner was so pleased he hired Roussil to deploy Meraki networks in 3 more of his hotels. All four hotels - each with 15-25 Meraki Indoors installed - were up and running within a matter of days.
Roussil's business plan provides that his clients pay per-incident for tech support. "But the network has been very stable," and with over 4,000 unique users across the four hotels, "we have received zero complaints."
Says Roussil, "You guys pretty much delivered everything you promised. We're very happy customers!" He's planning to expand his business into apartment complexes in the Montreal and Quebec City areas.
