Trianon Bonita Bay -
Bonita Springs and Naples, FL
Trianon Bonita Bay is a charming boutique hotel located at the lakefront entrance to the upscale community of Bonita Bay, Florida. Along with its sister hotel in Naples, it offers a range of amenities including spacious rooms, pool, gym, complimentary Wi-Fi, restaurant, bar, hot tub, and fire pit, as well as easy access to shopping and dining. Bonita Bay guests can relax at the lakefront, and Naples guests can enjoy the nearby beaches.
Their website says they offer the resort experience “without the resort price,” extending further discounts to locals and those who make advanced reservations.
The Bonita Bay hotel has 101 guest rooms that overlook Bonita Bay or the Promenade. The spacious property and four-floor structure provides numerous amenities and lounging areas available to guests but also made Wi-Fi access difficult.
The Need
Specifically, the Wi-Fi system problems experienced by Trianon Bonita Bay were threefold: (1) frequent wireless coverage issues, (2) malfunctioning equipment, and (3) inordinately long service lead times.
Guest complaints rose well beyond acceptable levels. Hotel revenue was directly affected by early checkouts and hotel credits issued to guests who complained about the Wi-Fi—which was a lot. The hotel considered the trouble serious enough to approve the upgrade during the first three months of the year—their busiest season.
Chris Renninger
Owner, Amtel South, Inc.
The Solution
Stacy Robertshaw, Director of Sales at Trianon, contacted Chris Renninger, owner of Amtel South, Inc., for help in designing the perfect upgrade. “Our company has used EnGenius products for over twenty years—most specifically long range bridges—with great success and limited trouble,” said Renninger. “We knew the best solution for this project was industrial-grade hardware and a cloud-based administration platform.”
After using the EnGenius ezWiFi planner to calculate signal penetration for each floor, Amtel South decided to install additional wiring to increase the overall number of APs. They installed two switches per floor as an operational failsafe so that if one switch were to fail, all APs on that floor could be powered by the second switch. This was especially important due to severe weather. “During normal operation, each switch has only a light load on its power source,” said Renninger. “In southwest Florida, redundancy is critical due to the high number of violent lightning storms throughout the summer and fall months.”
The EnGenius Cloud solution consisted of 37 ECW230 access points and 8 ECS1112FP switches. Because the access points and switches could be configured ahead of time, the deployment was completed in no time at all. “We performed a phased installation, bringing one floor online at a time,” said Renninger. “We were able to complete each floor with no more than 10 minutes of downtime.
The Results
The hotel saw an immediate and dramatic decrease in guest complaints. Amtel South initially monitored issues several times daily using the cloud interface and adjusted channel and transmission power settings as needed. “The ability to monitor and adjust settings without rolling a truck allowed us to tweak the system without waiting for the customer to report trouble,” Renninger said. “On more than one occasion we were aware of an internet outage before the customer!”
One of the chief complaints the hotel had about its previous Wi-Fi system was the endless waiting for repairs. Renninger wanted a solution that would eliminate truck rolls and save money. “We have been able to diagnose and correct issues without rolling a truck, saving our company many hundreds of dollars and dozens of labor hours,” he confirmed.
Since the installation, any network problem has been unrelated to EnGenius—internet outages, personal device failure, or user error. This kind of product reliability is what Renninger says he has come to expect from EnGenius.
Customer Satisfaction
The Wi-Fi installation at the Bonita Bay property was so successful, management asked Amtel South to do a similar install at their Naples property.
“The best feedback is repeat business, and, after the success at this location, we were asked to perform a similar installation at their sister hotel in Naples, Florida,” said Renninger. “Building on the lessons we learned from the first install, the Naples system went in without a hitch. No tweaks, and even three weeks after installation we didn’t receive even one trouble call.”
It was Amtel South’s first hotel installation ever, so they relied heavily on guidance from EnGenius on how to complete the project quickly and successfully. Renninger expressed gratitude to EnGenius in general and Jim Thomas, the sales manager, in particular for his help during all phases of the project.
“Thanks to Jim and the support team at EnGenius, we were able to provide a WiFi system that works to the hotel’s satisfaction, with a minimum of installation time and quick resolution to every issue that arose,” Renninger said.
