THE Millennium Airport Hotel Dubai in the UAE is extending free wi-fi anywhere on the hotel premises to business travellers, as a part of its latest Triple B promotion.
The Triple B promotion, ‘Bed, Breakfast and Broadband’ offer comes after hotel management noticed a steady rise in the number of guests requesting free wif-fi which mirrored a survey earlier this year by online booking portal hotel.com, a leading provider of hotel accommodation worldwide.
That survey which took in the views of 8,600 travellers across 28 different countries found that 67 per cent of respondents chose free wi-fi as the facility they most wanted to become standard throughout all hotels, when travelling on business.
That figure was more than twice the 31 per cent recorded during an amenities survey carried out by hotel.com in 2012.
“That statistic resonated with us. Moreover in 2012 only 38 per cent of travellers considered free wi-fi an absolute must when booking a hotel, but this year that figure was up by 18 per cent to 56 per cent, so the trend to us is very clear. Even 34 per cent of those surveyed said free wi-fi was the number one factor when selecting a leisure break,” says general manager Simon Moore.
By the end of 2014 there will be approximately 1.4 billion smart phones in circulation globally, that is one smart phone for every five people, and one in ten people will own a tablet by 2016 according to market research firm Strategy Analytics.
With wi-fi becoming more of an issue with business and indeed leisure travellers, the hotel’s full wireless connectivity, spans across 341 rooms, eight food and beverage outlets, the swimming pool area and includes the hotel’s new wing which is adding 225 to the hotels overall inventory.