How bundled wireless hotspots can help agents

Bram Jan Streefland, co-founder and managing director of wireless hotspot access provider Trustive, proposes how bundled wireless hotspot services could help travel agents add value to their customer bookings.

According to a survey out in June, trust in travel agents is waning as more people book their holidays online. 

Satisfying customers is increasingly difficult. I know this from running Trustive.  Our recent research showed 65% of users would really like a free service! They also want to be able to connect easily to Wi-Fi services via a fast and well-secured connection. 

You can’t have it all!  So how does this apply to the travel industry?

Value is the key word. Most people realise you don’t get ‘something for nothing’ or at least not without strings attached – you can get free hotspot access but you have to accept that it comes with a whole load of advertising.  Everyone wants to feel their money is being well spent. 

I believe that bundling services such as wireless hotspot access into travel deals is one way of adding extra value. Wireless hotspots are increasingly important with the rise of the ‘connected’ traveller – someone travelling on business or pleasure who wants to download not just email and documents but also music and video, and use their device for internet phone calls.

Our report suggests users want hotspot connectivity wherever they are – 33% use hotspots all over the world and 37% throughout their country of origin. 

Two of the most popular places to use Wi-Fi hotspots are hotels (27%) and airports (22%). In fact, 45% of our survey’s respondents say they select their hotel based on whether Wi-Fi is available. 

But with hundreds of service providers offering wireless access to the internet, how do you decide who would provide the best service? 

Most solutions are geographically specific with limited and sometimes poor coverage, meaning that to ensure a good service whilst travelling, users need to have accounts with multiple providers. Each has its own connection method requiring users to remember multiple logins and passwords, and its own usage model and charges.  Users also complain that many services are inflexible, sold in set time blocks regardless of the actual time utilised and expire after a set periods whether they have been used or not. 

What’s the answer?

Partnering with a wireless hotspot access provider with established agreements with ‘roaming partners’ that provide a virtual global network of hotspots. As a result, your customers will be able to access nearly all the major global networks of hotspots and prime wireless locations through a unified service with a single familiar user interface, password and bill. As well as meaning that poor connectivity and multiple logins are things of the past it also removes the nightmare of keeping track of a plethora of usage charges and costs. 

Some services can also offer increased flexibility through a variety of price plans, so you can meet your customers’ needs. These include pre-paid and subscription services but also ‘pooled options’ to enable small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) the opportunity to allow their travelling employees to share a ‘pool’ of user.  

And, with half of Britons being unable to exist without e-mail, according to another June survey – with 30 or 40-somethings more addicted than teens – surely such a bundled offering would be both popular and a great way to add value.