Best Practices

HTNG's workgroups often define best practices. Some of these have been incorporated into documents that are released to members and, after a period of time, to the public domain. These efforts reflect hundreds of hours of contributions from some of the best hotel, engineering, and marketing minds in the business. These documents are listed below in chronological order, most recent is first.

Quick Links

Cellular Coverage Business Models (2012)
Cellular Coverage Contract Considerations (2012)
A Hotelier’s Guide to Cellular Coverage Solutions (2012)
RFP Guidance for Neutral-Host Distributed Antenna System (DAS) (2012)
Business Requirements Specification - Hosted Entertainment Content Delivery Solutions (2011)
Converged Infrastructure Survey (2010)
IP PBX Hospitality Requirements and RFP template (2009)
Hotel Distributed Antenna System (DAS) Reference Document (2009)
IP TV Primer (2008)
Buying a TV For Your Property (2008)

Cellular Coverage Business Models (2012)

Download PDF

The Mobile Network Operators (MNO) networks were initially designed for voice communications to be supported over the required coverage areas, focusing on the mobile subscriber on the roadways. Since the initial networks and MNO’s business scenarios were deployed, the subscribers have embraced the mobile phone as their key communication device, driving the MNOs to provide higher-speed networks, expanding the market to address nomadic and fixed data users. Today, wireless phones are replacing fixed phones and data traffic is predicted to grow by 39 times 1 to 3.5 EB/month globally. Hoteliers are providing their customers with an overall experience that has all of the amenities of home and office, as well as the benefits of their services. Providing the wireless data service, one of the key amenities, is a challenge partially off-set with the advances and adoption of Wi-Fi capabilities. However, MNO wireless access is outside of the hoteliers’ control and unlike Wi-Fi, a direct revenue stream is not readily available to offset any required investment. To address this need for cellular wireless services hoteliers have explored various avenues and business scenarios. This document provides a view into the various business models, their variations and scenarios that are available today, from the hoteliers' perspective. The advantages and challenges of each core model are presented with the hotelier decision making process in mind.

Cellular Coverage Contract Considerations (2012)

Download PDF

The purpose of this document is not to recommend specific contract terms or strategies, but rather to identify the most prevalent contract issues faced by the various parties and to help the reader understand the points of view of the different parties (Hotelier, MNO, Third-Party Integrator) so that they can negotiate more productively, and from a better informed perspective. This guide is limited to cellular signal enhancement solutions and does not address in‐building Wi‐Fi Internet Access offered to guests and visitors. This document is based on the author’s experience negotiating numerous types of in‐building agreements with a variety of industry participants within the United States.

A Hotelier’s Guide to Cellular Coverage Solutions (2012)

This cellular coverage best practices guide is a series of four documents that are intended to educate hoteliers and hospitality technology management organizations that consult with hotel properties on the fundamentals of cellular coverage solutions. This guide includes an overview of the wireless technologies supported by the cellular coverage solutions and lists the available solutions and their respective strengths and weaknesses.

RFP Guidance for Neutral-Host Distributed Antenna System (DAS) (2012)

Download DOCX (Members only; login required)

The purpose of this document is to provide hotel owners and managers with potential suggestions for acquiring cellular coverage solutions and/or issuing a Neutral Host DAS RFP. This document is not intended to stand on its own. Instead, it is meant to provide technical guidelines for consideration which may be incorporated into a broader RFP or similar document..

Business Requirements Specification - Hosted Entertainment Content Delivery Solutions (2011)

Download PDF (Members only; login required)

This document outlines the business requirements for a "reduced footprint" entertainment system, that eliminates the majority of hotel "head-end" equipment required by most current deployments. It supports the delivery of content and entertainment services from content providers (e.g. North America Cable MSOs, Satellite providers, telcos, and hospitality solution providers), including linear programming of HD and SD channels, interactive program guides, and on-demand programming. The document outlines requirements for a solution that is remotely upgradeable, scalable, and less susceptible to obsolescence (as compared to current solutions on the market today).

Converged Infrastructure Survey (2010)

Download PDF (Members only; login required)

This hotelier survey gauges the technology challenges, vision and views of hotel CIOs representing the largest and most innovative hotel brands in the world. The survey participants represent nearly 14,000 properties with over 2 million rooms worldwide. Surveys were performed via telephone or in person to a sampling of 13 participants and surveys cover a variety of convergence topics. It is the hope that the survey results will speak to the types of infrastructure required to support a broad range of hospitality applications over the next 3-5 years and beyond.

IP PBX Hospitality Requirements and RFP template (2009)

Download XLS

In order to help hoteliers deal with the ongoing change from traditional telephony to IP Telephony, the Voice Communications Solutions Team of the historical In-Room Technology Workgroup created this IP PBX Hospitality Requirements and RFP template. It is intended to be a working document. This document (in the form of a spreadsheet) contains detailed hospitality-based IP PBX requirements and requested information in the following categories:

Property Information
Phone system information
Vendor diagrams
Failure recovery procedures
Wake up services
Messaging services
Contact center services
Call accounting

Hoteliers may find this draft document useful in these ways:

Developing and refining brand-specific IP PBX requirements;
Creating and scoring IP PBX vendor proposals;
Managing IP PBX requirements going forward.

Hotel Distributed Antenna System (DAS) Reference Document (2009)

Download PDF

This document was developed by the Infrastructure Team of the historical In-Room Technology Workgroup in 2009. It provides a reference document and RFP template for hoteliers and their technology consultants for the design, engineering and implementation of a multi-carrier, multi-service distributed antenna system (DAS). Note: Please check with your DAS manufacturer or integrator to understand which services require coverage and to ensure that they are supported.

IP TV Primer (2008)

Download PDF

In 2008, the Media Content Team of the historical In-Room Technology Workgroup created this primer to describe, at a high level, internet protocol television (IPTV). It explains the advantages, disadvantages, how it works, what is required to deploy it, Digital Rights Management (DRM), and questions to ask your service providers.

Buying a TV For Your Property (2008)

Download PDF

In 2008, the Media Content Team of the historical In-Room Technology Workgroup created this flyer which describes issues that purchasers must heed when considering new televisions. Issues like HDTV Programming, Compatibility, and Security are briefly discussed as well as other issues you may or may not have considered.