Wireless Internet standards in Cologne Hotels

Why are wireless internet standards necessary in the first place, anyway? Because the world is changing rapidly. Every day, more and more people are subscribing to the internet, more are signing up to wireless internet connections in their homes, more people have their own personal laptops, and more of them are using their laptops on the go - using them out in the public via wireless internet connections. What’s more, public places such as cafes, pubs and airports are increasingly starting to accommodate the needs of the customer (and rightly so – it is to be expected). They’re making wireless internet connections (Wi-Fi) more readily available to their customers. So if a customer was to walk into a Starbucks for an iced-up cappuccino, for example, they can hook up to the wireless internet connection available while they down their coffee. Some customers spend a lot of time in Starbucks so that facility is a very welcome addition.

Just as there is a need to enforce non-wireless internet standards, there is as much of a need to apply the same practices to its wireless counterpart – and hotels should be no exception. The question is: do hotels have wireless internet standards in place and if so, how strictly are they enforced? How do these standards vary from country to country as well as from hotel to hotel? For example, what are the wireless internet standards in Cologne hotels (if any)? Are there additional and running costs involved in ensuring it ticks over smoothly?

First of all, internet standards for wireless connections may very well not be available in all hotels in Cologne, anyway. Its existence might also depend on the status of the hotel itself. For example, there’s more of a probability that the higher the star of a hotel, the more likely it is that it will be able to have Wi-Fi installed. Some of these hotels will most likely have their own IT department that takes care of that side of things (especially if they are part of a conglomerate of hotel chains). Hopefully, the IT department will be clued up on standards that need to be followed and more importantly, enforce those standards. It might be less of a priority in the case of a single-star hotel to have Wi-Fi at all – even though laptops are more affordable, they might not attract a significant amount of customers to justify its implementation.

For example, Hotel Ascot has a wireless internet connection in its public area, while the business hotel, Leonardo Hotel Cologne (Hotel Köln) , has a wireless connection in every one of its 161 guest rooms. However, it is one thing to have the wireless connections in place – it’s quite another to practice the standards attached to them. Whether these hotels and other hotels with wireless connections actually do practice it is another matter.

Is there a regulatory body that ensures the standards are adhered to or are hotels left to their devices to self-regulate?