Are you in Control of your In-Suite Guest Entertainment Costs?
April 29, 2020
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Ventures
The short term and vacation rental industries crash due to COVID-19. Are you struggling to maintain costs of your in-suite guest entertainment during the COVID-19 pandemic? We have helped many customers get control of these costs to set them up for success when this is over.
"Randy Fixed Our Wi-Fi"
July 16, 2019
Written by: Beth Hamilton, Product and Marketing Manager
It is a really great day when you can combine your professional skill set with your giving spirit and favourite hobby. Randy, our CTO, and I have had the privilege of doing just that this summer. I have been involved in an event called The BIG SWIM since 2013, and Randy since 2014. This event fundraises to support a charity called Brigadoon Village, an incredible charity that provides camp programming for children with chronic illnesses and other life challenges. We had the pleasure of performing some site work at their location in Aylesford, Nova Scotia to help with their summer camp programming.
WiFi Challenges in Vacation Rentals
July 10, 2019
Written by: Jennifer Down, Account Executive at SolutionInc
Arriving in downtown Toronto was an amazing experience for me as I have not been there before and was very excited to see the night skyline. I must say, Toronto did not disappoint as the views were spectacular. In the city for business, I was lucky enough to have friends who live in Mississauga so they were happy to show me around and get me to my vacation rental.
Review of WiFi Now Conference
May 27, 2019
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Business Ventures
SolutionInc attended this years’ WiFi Now conference in DC and it was a fantastic event.
There seemed to be some up and commers in the in the hardware, network monitoring and cloud gateway space there as vendors, and most of the presentations were great to take in and very informative.
Wi-Fi VS Internet: Is There a Difference?
April 14, 2019
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Business Ventures
We run into a lot of operators and management companies that blend WiFi and Internet into one service and assume it’s all the same thing. This works ok for your home connection if your tech needs are simple; but when running a business it does not cut it. Your guests expect a flawless experience and your business needs a network dedicated to running your business. As a property manager, operator, or developer, you have to look at your technology, and specifically your WiFi/Internet a bit differently as you grow.
Know More about Your Guests with Wi-Fi Analytics.
April 10, 2019
Written by: Beth Hamilton, Product & Marketing Manager
It is no secret that your guests are expecting world-class WiFi access when they arrive at your property. We believe that your properties WiFi is more than just an important guest amenity; it’s a tool for you to help gain insights into your guests. We may be biased, but we believe that WiFi analytics allow you the visibility and confidence to best understand and serve your guests. Think of the power that this knowledge provides your team to do their job to the highest standard.
How to Ensure Successful Wiring of Your Vacation Rental.
April 1, 2019
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Business Ventures
There is a new trend in the Vacation Rental space that is causing a lot of managers and builders to scratch their heads and seek an educated professional’s opinion. That trend is: converting old apartment buildings, or building new ones, and turning them into “hotel-like” vacation rental buildings. Everything, including your WiFi network, becomes increasingly complex and requires more robust commercial hardware when you take on a project like this. Guest expectations are raising and this shifts the industry even further into a traditional hospitality model with a little Vacation Rental flare.
Deciding Your Network Needs
March 11, 2019
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Business Ventures
Whether you are opening a new property, renovating an existing facility, or simply updating the network needs inside an existing venue, it is important to take some time to decide what you need from your network. With rapidly changing technologies you cannot afford to implement your networks like you have in the past – everything is evolving and you need to as well.
The Most Confusing Part of CES 2019
January 25, 2019
Written by: Robin Veinotte, Director of New Business Ventures
While at The Consumer Electronic Show (CES) 2019 it was easy to get lost in a barrage of gadgets, drones, TV Displays and speakers that light up. Lots of vendors had some sort of gadget or enhancement to last years gadget to make someone want to buy the next version (#typical).
However, the big buzz in the Telecom industry seems to be the impending arrival of 5G and everyone in an industry related seemed to tout some sort of 5G enabled device in the pipeline. But when asked what and where 5G is, there was a lot of different answers being thrown back at any one asking.
Optimizing Your Bandwidth Usage
December 19th, 2018
Written by: Andrew McCracken, Solutions Engineer at SolutionInc.
More than ever today, we place a growing strain on the capacity of our Internet connections. Multimedia content rich applications such as Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Social Media and downloads account for the majority of data usage. According to Forbes, Netflix alone consumes 15% of the world’s Internet bandwidth. Not to be outdone, the venerable BitTorrent protocol accounts for 22% of upstream bandwidth usage. This puts a strain on service provider infrastructure, but what about in the home and your own experience?
VRMA Vendor Recap
November 16, 2018
Vlog Post by Robin Veinotte, Director, New Business Ventures
If you follow our social media, you'd know that we attended the Vacation Rental Management Association International Show (VRMA) this year and had an excellent time at the trade show MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
One of our favorite parts of the trade show was getting to meet the excellent vendors who were exhibiting at the show alongside us. Everything from towels to property management systems, there was a vendor for just about everything. It should come as no surprise, though, that the vendors we were particularly interested in were those with WiFi enabled tech.
VRMA Attendee Recap Vlog
November 14, 2018
Vlog Post by Robin Veinotte, Director, New Business Ventures
We attended the Vacation Rental Management Association International Show (VRMA) this year and had an excellent time at the trade show MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Being our first time attending and exhibiting, we really weren't too sure what to expect. Here we explain the top 3 pillars that we took away from our current and potential customers at this show.
Impact of being a global company
November 12, 2018
Written by: Beth Hamilton, Product & Marketing Manager
It is no secret that when you become a global organization, your business changes significantly. In today's market, it can be difficult to be successful while only servicing customers locally or even nationally; going global is almost a requirement. We've been a global company for many years working in the Internet and network fields for more than twenty years. I'm old enough to remember the first computer that my friend had and the most amazing games ever - pong and frogger! But it's otherwise hard for me to remember a time without consistent WiFi access and google in the palm of my hand. And the reality is that many parts of the world still aren't caught up to North American standards of connectivity.
Airbnb for Canada Day
July 3, 2018
Written by: Beth Hamilton, Product & Marketing Manager
I had the pleasure of spending the Canada Day long weekend in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. It's a small province in Eastern Canada that boasts incredible seafood, everything Anne of Green Gables, and pristine beaches. This trip, my girl friends and I chose to rent an Airbnb cottage outside of Charlottetown, just a 15 minute drive from the beach or downtown. This being my first experience with Airbnb, I was curious to see how everything would work.
Developing Markets
May 17, 2018
Written by: Jerry Mosher, Solution Specialist
FHA 2018: another great event. For those unfamiliar, that’s the Foodnhotelasia, Asia’s premiere bi-annual industry trade show. There is lots of activity happening in the technology scene that is heavy on user experience. I very quickly noticed data analytics (think dashboards), self-service, surveys, and end-user connectivity are key drivers for growth. All these growth areas focus on gaining personal insight to our customer’s experience. This gives us the ability to know where we shop, where we eat, and where we play. All with the click of a button, and all with the ability to self-serve. And what is one thing that everyone needs and, in many cases, is willing to give you their information for? WiFi access.
My First Access Point
May 4, 2018
Written by: Beth Hamilton, Product & Marketing Manager.
We went on site today to complete the installation of our WiFi authentication portal, analytics engine, and site services to a local customer. In case you don't already know, an access point (AP) is a hardware box that is used to create a wireless local area network (WLAN) by connecting to a wireless router (what you get from your internet service provider). AP's allow users to roam around your facility without service interruptions and can also be used to track usage.
Summit Place Hotels Announcement at the Nova Centre
March 27, 2018
Posted by: Glen Girard, SolutionInc Channel Development Manager
In March our team, including Glen Lavigne, Karen Saunders, and I, attended the announcement of the new Sutton Place Hotel to be launched in 2019 in Halifax. The Nova Centre event included spectacular speeches from Halifax Mayor Mike Savage, Nova Scotia Premier Stephen McNeil, Developer Joe Ramia from Rank Ltd, and Tom Gaglardi, CEO of Sutton Place Hotels. The venue was bright and held a stunning view of the Halifax downtown and harbour, demonstrating that the Nova Centre will be a premiere destination for conventions and corporate events for decades to come.