Is the iPad a threat to hotel Wi-Fi?

by Jessica Festa on

While many hotels are now offering free Wi-Fi for guests, there now seems to be a glitch in the system, and that glitch is the iPad. Along with other tablet computers, these devices are most often used for video streaming.

David W. Garrison, the chief executive of iBAHN, a provider of information systems for the hospitality industry, explains why this is a problem. “The bits used for video streaming and downloading increased thirtyfold on our network in one year.”

Because of this, Garrison points out that hotels now must decide “either to not increase the amount of bandwidth so everyone will get much slower service to the point where you’ll think you’re on a dial up connection” or upgrade to a system that will force hotel guests to have to pay extra for the Wi-Fi.

It is a difficult decision for hotels to have to make, mainly because many business travelers choose hotels that offer the free Wi-Fi service. However, the abundant amount of video streaming on the iPad is really putting a strain on hotel networks.

Five good business habits that suffer when you travel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Business travel isn’t easy. In order to make the most of the money you’re spending, you wind up sacrificing sleep, cramming in as many meetings as possible and adopting a pace of life that you’d never be able to maintain at home. It’s severe, it’s unpleasant and it’s a simple fact of life on the road. Your personal well-being tends to be the first casualty. Diet and exercise are cast aside, as you sacrifice them to business objectives. Sleep doesn’t last long, either – I can’t count how many six-hour nights quickly slipped to three.

What often gets overlooked, however, is the impact that business travel can have on your business habits. We all lament the personal effects, but we tend to miss those that matter most to why we’re on the road to begin with! Hectic schedules and long lists of business needs can ultimately cause your performance to suffer.

Let’s take a look at five good business habits that are jeopardized when you’re on the road:
1. Preparation: with a crammed schedule, you aren’t as likely to have time to review your notes, reflect on meetings you’ve just completed and get ready for those still on the agenda. Even with the most rigorous note-taking, you’re bound to miss something. Instead of packing your agenda, protect your results by building in enough time to prepare and reflect.

2. Visibility: part of making an in-person visit is to be seen. Otherwise, you could get a lot done through phone calls, email and video conferencing.

3. Communication: cram your schedule, and you won’t just miss out on being seen – you also won’t be heard. Even if you throw etiquette to the win and work your BlackBerry feverishly during meetings, you still won’t be able to communicate effectively. Your over-ambitious agenda will cause your day-to-day work to suffer, and it will also impact the people you work with. Leave a little time to make sure you give the folks back at the office what they need.

4. Collaboration: if people can’t see or hear you, they certainly won’t be able to share ideas effectively with you. A travel agenda that’s too busy will cost your company your perspective, and that’s part of why you were hired. Make sure you leave some room to work actively with your colleagues back at the office to keep existing projects on track – and share your ideas with people who want them.

5. Common sense: related to fatigue, hunger and everything else … you do stupid things when you aren’t at your best. Basic decision making and judgment calls suffer, which can cost you anything from an embarrassing moment to the rest of your career.

Five reasons the airlines don’t need to care about you

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I’m getting on a plane next week, and I’m not looking forward to it. This will be yet another long, painful flight this year – and I’ve already had more than I have in a while. Though I’m getting used to this sort of business travel again, I can’t say that I like it. All the time spent in transit, quite frankly, blows.

It isn’t unusual at this point to lament the state of customer service in an industry that won’t even call us customers. How nice it would be to be treated well and given a product worth consuming, right? Well, we all know that isn’t going to happen. And the truth is that there’s no reason for it.

The airline industry really wouldn’t benefit from making our lives better, while the impact of the status quo on airline shareholders is as positive as it is evident. Let’s take a look at five reasons why it would be stupid for the airlines to start treating us better:
1. You get what you pay for: when I booked my flight to London (my upcoming trip), one thing mattered: price. I went with Delta, and it’s been years since I’ve had a good experience on that carrier. That didn’t matter to me, though. Price did.

Even if good service were a differentiator, it probably wouldn’t cause sales to surge. If you don’t pay extra for leg room or other forms of premium seating, then you definitely wouldn’t pay more for a ticket on an airline committed to customer service.

2. The current model seems to be working: a la carte pricing, extra fees and few (if any) amenities – along with route cuts and other operational changes – have taken the airlines out of the red and into the black. They’re making money, which really is the only reason they exist.

The fact that people gripe doesn’t mean they aren’t responding to the product. We’re spending a lot of money on extras … because we want them. Lower fares, net of amenities, provide travel consumers with the starting place they want. They can add (and pay) if they choose. In this market, service just isn’t a priority.

3. The right people are happy: the first thing you’ll learn in any business ethics course is that a company’s primary obligation is to its shareholders. So, if a company can create shareholder wealth while pissing off its customers, then it should probably stay the course. The airline industry, generally, has been doing this.

If shareholders are happy, we don’t have to be. If customer service becomes a problem for airlines to the point that it causes sales to drop, then the shareholders won’t be happy, and customer service becomes a priority.

4. Expectations are low and probably won’t change: let’s say you’re an airline executive, and you want to rehabilitate your company’s image. What would you have to do? The answer is pretty simple: spend a lot of money. You’d have to invest in equipment, operations, training and (after that) marketing. You’d have to change the business fundamentally, and it would cost a fortune. Would you do all this just to keep your customers happy? In all likelihood, you’d do it only if the financial upside were sufficient to justify the hefty investment. The outcome you’d need, however, doesn’t seem likely in this market.

It’s not impossible. JetBlue did turn itself around a few years ago, becoming an efficient and customer-friendly organization. It’s a smaller airline, though, which made the process easier. Also, there were issues beyond customer service that made such a bold change necessary.

5. You wouldn’t appreciate it anyway: why? Let’s face it – we buy on price. It keeps coming back to that. We want cheap, and airlines want profit. The airlines have found a way to deliver the former in a way that enables the latter. The travel industry and its consumers appear to have found some degree of balance in this regard. Ultimately, we really don’t care much about service … so why should the airlines?

[photo by Refracted Moments via Flickr]

Five ways to lighten your load when traveling on business and pleasure

by Tom Johansmeyer on

If you’ve gone on a long business trip, there’s a good chance you’ve tacked a vacation onto the front or back of it. Why not? You’re already on the road. If business takes you (or close to) an interesting place, it makes sense to get the most out of your experience – and the plane ticket you’ve already purchased. Unfortunately, this can be a pain sometimes. You wind up with a lot of luggage to drag around, which can be uncomfortable at best.

Don’t let this problem get in your way!

There are a number of ways you can change how you pack to make your business-and-pleasure combo easier to manage. Let’s take a look at five of them:

1. Get real about shoes: do you need footwear for casual, office and formal occasions? Try to consolidate. Getting down to one pair may be tough, but you should be able to find a pair of shoes that at least works from business casual through formal. It won’t be the best pair of shoes for any of these occasions, but it might be just good enough for all of them.

2. Recycle your wardrobe: use clothing form your business trip for nights out when you’re on vacation. It’s close enough. Maybe mix up the shirts and paints so you feel like you’re wearing something a little different from what you put on for the job.

3. Find a local laundry service: the hotels will gouge you, so don’t even think about using them. Try to find a dry cleaner with wash/dry/fold service at your destination. It isn’t as cheap as doing the laundry yourself, but it will be faster and easier. And you won’t have to pack as much.

4. Enlist your travel partner’s help: is your wife (or husband, girlfriend, boyfriend, etc.) going to meet you for the vacation portion of your trip? See if you can have him or her carry your vacation clothing for you. At least it cuts your load for the outbound side of your trip. Maybe the two of you could each carry half of what you need for the vacation part.

5. Stick to the essentials: wear the same suit twice. Skip the extra pair of jeans. You could probably get by on a lot less than you think!

Three good reasons why Monday-morning business travel is best

by Tom Johansmeyer on

I just stepped through airport security on a Monday morning for the first time in a few years. I used to dread Mondays when I was a hard-core road warrior, because they came to represent the first step in a marathon, and I knew that agony was just around the corner. Also, it didn’t help that I had only been home for 48 hours, was still exhausted and had to get up at 4 AM to start the insanity all over again.

This time around, it wasn’t so bad. Sure, I had to get up at an awful hour to make my 7 AM flight, and I generally don’t enjoy the gauntlet that is air travel. But, if you have to contend with the airlines, the best time to do so, it seems, is Monday morning.

And it all comes down to people.

When you fly on Monday morning, you’ll be doing it with pros. This is when the road warriors – the poor souls who (by choice) travel every week – tend to dash off to their recurring client engagements. These guys know the drill, and they tend not to exhibit the annoying behavior of infrequent or leisure travelers.

Here are three reasons why Monday morning is the best time to step on a plane:1. Security is easy: on my most recent stroll through the checkpoint, everyone knew what he was doing. There wasn’t much stupidity, and the line moved quickly. Shoes came off before the conveyor belts, and laptops were already extracted from briefcases. There was no fumbling or forgetting at the moment of truth.

2. Fewer questions are necessary: you don’t see as many people hounding employees at the ticket counters or at the gates (unless there’s a delay or cancelation, of course). The passengers know what they’re doing, which ultimately means more elbow room for the employees to do their jobs. Things run smoothly. If you do have a question, you’ll have an easier time getting to someone who can answer it.

3. It’s easier to follow the rules: why? Well, because everyone else is! I’m not joking. On Monday mornings, most people seem to pay attention, know when to board and don’t bother trying to beat the system (e.g., by disregarding lines in front of gate agents). Since the environment’s a bit more orderly, you don’t feel like you’re getting screwed when you follow the rules. If you have to wait in line, you tend to suspect that the questions aren’t inane, and that you’ll get through it soon enough.

Now, if you aren’t a regular business traveler, you should pay attention to what’s going on around you. After all, you don’t want to disrupt the flow and invoke the ire of all around you! Plan ahead. Be ready for the security checkpoints. Listen for when your boarding group is called. You’ll be contributing to the easiest travel experience imaginable!

[photo by Jim Epler via Flickr]