Guest Wi-Fi that handles a full house, and cameras that respect the law

The hotel had a provider box in the basement, three repeaters from different brands and a Wi-Fi password on a card at reception. Guests on the third floor complained, the payment terminal in the restaurant dropped out now and then, and the cameras at the entrance recorded to a box nobody remembered the password for.

The owner wanted three things: Wi-Fi that handles a full house, a network where the till does not sit next to the guests, and cameras that would not get her into trouble. All without closing the hotel.

We started with a site survey: an afternoon measuring on every floor, checking what cabling was in place and talking to reception and the kitchen. The advice fitted on one page: 14 access points instead of the 20 an earlier quote proposed, one gateway, two PoE switches, and five segmented networks for guests, staff, the till, cameras and the smart thermostats.

Our partner electrician pulled the cabling over two quiet weekdays, floor by floor. The cut-over happened on a Tuesday night between 1 and 5 a.m. The next morning guests logged in through a captive portal in the hotel's brand, and the old network was off.

For the cameras we first drew what we would not film: the street, the neighbours' terrace, the staff kitchen. Eleven cameras on UniFi Protect, local storage, retention period set and documented. At hand-over we walked through the police registration with the owner and put the pictograms up at the entrances.

Wi-Fi complaints at reception went from an average of six a week to zero in the three months after installation, tracked in the reception log. The payment terminal has not dropped out since. The cut-over cost zero minutes of downtime during opening hours.

The whole project, from site survey to hand-over, took three weeks. The hotel chose Network Care Standard: monitoring, updates and an annual re-survey, with the owner as sole administrator of the controller.

Ubiquiti UniFi gateway, switches and access points, UniFi Protect for the cameras, Cat6A cabling in a labelled rack, captive portal in the hotel's brand. The hotel owns all hardware, the controller and every credential, and received an as-built file with floor plan, VLAN plan and camera positions.