Built in 1999, the Dorada Palace is a 4-star hotel ideally located on the Mediterranean coast of Spain, a short drive from the city bustle of Barcelona.The hotel has an extensive range of facilities to cater for all types of guests including romantic spa treatments for couples to entertainment for families with children of all ages.

Challenges

• The legacy 802.11g WiFi was not fit for purpose with the growing
  number of 802.11n devices
• Previous WiFi coverage was limited to only the bar & lobby
• Multiple connectivity issues and complaints from guests
• Guests unable to stay in touch with families via the web or get
  connected to access work emails

We can now offer our guests high quality WiFi without a dedicated IT staff member. Guests can get connected completely autonomously. Eduard Bonet, IT Manager, Dorada Palace Hotel

Why Cisco Meraki

• Intuitive, web-based, graphical user interface to manage the wireless network
• Facebook WiFi login integrated into the Cisco Meraki dashboard
• Simple to manage client bandwidth
• Billing options for WiFi access built-in to the dashboard
• Proven in hundreds of hospitality deployments
• Vendors also evaluated: D-Link, MikroTik and TP-Link

The deployment

• Cisco Meraki cloud-managed indoor & outdoor wireless access points and switches
• 50+ Cisco Meraki cloud-managed wireless access points deployed
  across the hotel
• Free WiFi for guests with Facebook WiFi sign-on in communal areas
  limited to 512kbps per client
• Premium in-room WiFi with speeds of up to 10Mbps per client
  integrated with billing splash page
• Worked with technology partner, DataCom3, to fully install solution inside 2 days and within business
  hours

Results

• Reliable, high quality WiFi for guests without any dedicated IT staff
• No more complaints from unhappy guests about the WiFi
• Higher than expected increase in Facebook page ‘Likes’ for the hotel
  after implementing Facebook WiFi login in communal areas
• Regular return on investment from premium in-room WiFi service
• Expansion of the WiFi, without any extra cabling, to previously
  ‘unreachable’ areas of the hotel using Cisco Meraki auto-configuring Mesh technology
• 200+GB of data transferred and 1,000+ unique clients connected over
  the entire wireless network on average per week