CASE STUDY Wifi Fun at Landal Holiday Parks

CASE STUDY WiFi fun at Landal Holiday Parks

Stay connected while on holiday – WiFi fun at Landal Holiday Parks Challenge The aim was to install WiFi at holiday WiFi infrastructure was set up at seven German homes at seven of the Landal Parks holiday parks operated by Landal GreenParks in Germany, providing equal WiFi in 2012. Our specialists from Aachen made sure coverage across the entire park area, holidaymakers can enjoy equal internet access covering a total of 147 hectares – equal to anywhere in the spacious parks. a total of over 200 football fields.

Solution A complete WiFi infrastructure including a total of 324 access points with different Going online wirelessly – and enjoying your holiday even more antennae for reliable and secure WiFi throughout the parks. Client satisfaction is key to operating phisticated communication facilities successful leisure facilities. In the in- fitting the overall holiday product. formation age, accessing the internet on your laptop, tablet PC or smart- The operators aimed to find a solu- Advantages phone is part and parcel of an enjoya- tion that was both cost-efficient and ble holiday for any guest. While in the easy to manage. At this stage, seven • enjoying Facebook while out and about past only businesspeople required LandalParks in Germany have imple- • stable WiFi covering the entire park internet access to be connected and mented the WiFi solution devised by without any costly digging reply to emails, using the internet has m3connect in Aachen. The result has • attractive pricing that works for guest now become entirely second nature been highly satisfying for Landal and as much as park operators to all guests, old and young. convinced them to have this tried and • legally airtight tested system installed in even more • easy expansion of the system by means Pre-schoolers, business clients and parks in the near future. of silver surfers alike expect undisrupt- • additional modules like video on ed WiFi access wile on holiday. This demand, VOIP, digital signage means guests expect to have WiFi beyond the reception area or the holiday home itself, but also in restau- rants and at the outdoor areas – that is to say, anywhere in the park. In early 2012, Landal GreenParks faced the challenge to provide stable, so-

m3connect GmbH | Friedlandstr. 18 | 52064 Aachen | Germany Phone: +49 241 980986 0 | Fax: +49 241 980986 90 | Mail: [email protected] www.m3connect.de Challenges – trees, pools, bun- m3connect WiFi – galows legally airtight solutions tailored to your needs A key aspect of the Landal concept is For hotel and holiday park operators, that parks are located amidst un- being on the safe side legally is very touched nature. This means that mo- important bile phone reception will be limited when it comes to providing WiFi. in parts, and in contrast to hotels of a Operators wish to avoid having the smaller size, there will be insufficient police knock on their door with a wiring. search warrant because of online crime happening at their parks. A particular challenge when install- Increased use of WiFi technology has ing the system in the parks was to of course increased the risk that WiFi ensure WiFi was equally strong at all access might be used holiday homes. Guest should be able to transfer music, films or images to go online regardless where in the illegally. park they are, rather than having to After all, IP addresses, which are go to a certain area, e.g. the recep- generally easily traceable, will lead tion. the authorities to the hotspot operator rather than the user. Choosing Distance was not the only problem m3connect gives Landal GreenParks we encountered: There are different that peace of mind that for each obstacles to overcome depending on instance of improper use by guests, Landal GreenParks the time of the year: Densely planted as authorities will only ever have to trees covered in leaves between the liaise with m3connect rather than the Landal GreenParks is a growing, user and the WiFi access point can park operator. dynamic business and a market leader have an impact on reception. in outdoor holiday park and camping Reception is also impeded by large The next step – improved speed holiday management, administration buildings such as pools or well- through optic fibre and rental. Landal operates a total of 73 parks comprising a total of around 12,000 ness areas as they interfere with Optic fibre allows internet access holiday homes. transmission to the access points. at a much faster speed than ever This is where the concept devised before as data transmission rates are At 51 holiday homes, by m3connect came into play: The many times that of conventional DSL Landal is the number one holiday park solution lay in choosing and placing connections. Upload and download provider in the Netherlands. Outside the the access points in the most suit- speeds of up to 100 megabyte per Netherlands, Landal operates parks in able spots, connecting them most second (mbit/s) can be achieved. In Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, efficiently – both wireless and wired contrast to copper cables, optic fibre Austria, Switzerland and Hungary. Seven – while selecting the best matching cables do not transmit data as elec- of the holiday parks also offer camping antennas. trical impulses but as light signals. sites offering around 1,500 camping pitches in total. Besides, great care and professional- This does not only allow extremely ism were required in fast data transmission, Landal GreenParks employ about 2,550 installing the system, including but also makes transmission less staff. What sets Landal Parks apart from lightning protection. In other words: susceptible to electromagnetic inter- other parks is the use of open space. This required a WiFi solution indi- ference. That is why Landal parks are Tranquillity, space and nature describe vidually tailored to Landal’s needs. scheduled to be connected to optic the core characteristics of the parks Within about six weeks, m3connect fibre before the end of this year. Also, and are also the main reasons why then realised these WiFi projects at the improved capacity resulting from holidaymakers choose Landal. seven Landal holiday parks, providing this can be used for new applications internet for a total area of 147 hectare including digital signage, video on Landal GreenParks feels closely linked – equal to over 200 football fields. demand or with the natural environment in which The total number of holiday houses voice over IP calling. This will make it operates. For this reason, Landal has ranged from 89 at the smallest park going online at the holiday park even developed a range of projects to promote in Travemunde in Northern Germany more fun! to 215 at the largest of the Landal man living in harmony with nature. parks in Leiwen on the Moselle river. Overall, we installed 324 access points across the parks.

An interview with Ernst Veldkamp, ICT project manager at Landal GreenParks:

Mister Veldkamp, why did Landal From your experience, which aspects Mr Veldkamp, what are your views on GreenParks decide to have a WiFi of internet usage are of particular working with m3connect? system installed although this is par- importance to your guests? And what ticularly tricky, taking into account the do your guests think about the WiFi Working with m3connect was a great landscape of such parks? you offer? experience. m3connect were very at- tentive when it came to planning and As operators, we had one primary goal: Many of our guests use skype and so- the specific requirements we have. We always want to offer our guests the cial networks such as Facebook. They They then offered us clever solutions most positive experience also tweet and blog or simply browse tailored to our needs that met all of throughout their stay with us. Fast and the internet. Young people also bring the requirements we had set out. We easy access to communication media their games consoles to be able to play were particularly impressed with the is simply indispensable for an enjoyable online. actual installation of the system as holiday nowadays. That is why Given this, it’s obvious why operators the team they sent providing stable internet access is key of modern holiday resorts need worked together perfectly as a team. to running a successful tourism busi- to provide good WiFi. ness. Our contacts at m3connect were Seeing that more and more people use Our guests love the system we have absolutely reliable, and competent mobile devices to go online, it’s safe to put in place. Price stability in the lei- to answer even tricky questions on say that while some might still see it as sure sector is different from the hotel minor details. They were with us at a ‘nice to have’ now, business, for instance - nonetheless we every stage of the project. WiFi access will surely be an absolute are experiencing high demand. That Overall, we felt there was a high level must-have in the future. shows us that our pricing is working of transparency and fairness. At this and that we’ve been able to success- point, we have installed m3connect’s Regarding barriers caused by the fully implement our concepts. Many systems in seven parks in Germa- topography of our parks, m3connect holiday-makers are already purchas- ny and plan to have further ones have been able to completely fulfil our ing WiFi access when they book their installed in parks in Germany and technical requirements holiday homes because it is cheaper abroad. and we have been able to apply the to do so in advance. Our guests are system to several other parks as well. also very happy with the multilingual 24-hour helpline. This way, they can contact the WiFi operator directly for assistance rather than having to come to reception.