Hospitality sector
IT for Hotels: Wi-Fi, Networks and Video Surveillance
In a hotel, IT is part of the guest experience. Wi-Fi that drops in the room shows up in an online review the next day; a PMS — the system that manages bookings and billing — going down stalls check-in at rush hour; a camera that didn't record turns a minor incident into a serious problem. DataRoad installs and maintains the technology infrastructure of hotels in Lisbon and across the rest of Portugal.
Why hospitality can't be handled like an office
An office has one type of user, one working schedule and one network. A hotel has guests who change every day, staff working in shifts, billing systems that cannot stop and cameras recording non-stop — all in the same building and often over the same cabling.
Walls that don't help
Historic buildings, thick walls and uneven floors destroy wireless coverage. The solution is to measure on site and place access points per room or per zone — not to put one device on each floor and hope for the best.
Guests and operations don't mix
The guest network is public by nature. The PMS, payment terminals and accounting cannot share the same logical space.
There's no convenient time
There's no quiet Saturday night in a hotel. Work is carried out in phases, with a rollback plan and without affecting anyone checking in.
The building works decide everything
In refurbishments, cabling must be planned before the walls are closed. After that, every missing network point costs ten times as much.
What we do in a hotel
| Area | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Cabling and racks | Design and installation of certified structured cabling, racks and floor-by-floor distribution. |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 with access points per room or per zone, a guest portal and centralised management. |
| Network security | Firewall and VLAN segmentation (separate networks within the same infrastructure) between guests, staff and critical systems. |
| Video surveillance | CCTV with continuous recording, controlled remote access and legally compliant signage. |
| Ongoing support | IT Unlimited — user support and maintenance at a fixed cost, with immediate response to incidents. |
The metric that matters isn't the contracted bandwidth. It's the experience in the room furthest from the rack, at the time of night when half the hotel is streaming TV over the internet. That's where a hotel network is judged.
Density, not coverage
The usual question is “does the signal reach room 214?”. The right question is “how many devices will be connected on that floor at 10 pm?”. A 60-room hotel can easily have 200 devices online at once — phones, laptops, TVs, tablets.
Sizing for coverage gives you a pretty heat map and unhappy guests. Sizing for density takes more access points and solves the problem for good.
Structured cabling in hotels: what goes inside the walls
In a hotel, cabling is the only part of the infrastructure that isn't replaced later. Access points can be swapped in a morning, a switch in an afternoon — but the cable running inside the guest-room wall stays there for twenty years. That's why the cabling decision is the most expensive to get wrong and the cheapest to get right.
One network point per room isn't enough
This is where the numbers usually fall short: a modern hotel needs network connections for the corridor access point, the in-room TV, the electronic lock, the thermostat and the phone. Cable with only Wi-Fi in mind and two years later the ceilings are open again to run whatever was missed.
- Rooms — points for TV, IP phone and room automation, in addition to the corridor access point.
- Public areas — lobby, restaurant, terrace and meeting rooms, with density calculated by occupancy rather than square metres.
- Back office — reception, housekeeping, stores and the rack where everything terminates.
- Security — cameras and access control on the same infrastructure, on a separate VLAN.
When CAT6A is justified — and the reason isn't speed
We install CAT6 and CAT6A structured networks. In hospitality, choosing CAT6A — the cable category above CAT6 — is rarely about 10 Gbps: it's about PoE, the electrical power carried over the network cable itself. Wi-Fi 7 access points and modern cameras draw power through the cable, and CAT6A dissipates heat better in a bundle of dozens of cables in the same tray.
A hot cable loses throughput before it throws an error: the kind of fault nobody diagnoses and everybody feels. If you're deciding on the category, we've written a guide to CAT5e, CAT6 and CAT6A.
Works with a full hotel
We rarely cable an empty hotel. We work floor by floor and wing by wing, preparing cable runs during the quietest hours, so no room is out of service for more than a morning. Reception and the PMS never stop — they are the first to be migrated and the last to be touched.
Certification is what separates a job from a promise
Every point installed is certified with Fluke equipment and handed over with a point-by-point report. Without certification, a network problem the following year is an argument with no referee: it could be the cable, the switch or the access point. With the report in hand, you know. We explained why in why certifying your network is not optional.
The cable is the decision that outlasts the hotel. Active equipment is renewed every five years. The cabling stays — and sets the ceiling for everything that comes after it.
Cabling projects in hospitality
- LX Arch Hotel, Rua Augusta — complete installation, Wi-Fi 7, CCTV and IT management.
- Nicola Rossio Hotel — network, Wi-Fi, firewall and IT Unlimited.
- Wi-Fi for hotels — the network guests praise and the one that runs the hotel.
Wireless networks in hotels: the review starts with the in-room Wi-Fi
Access point per room or per corridor — and why it isn't the same calculation
Choosing between placing an access point inside each room or serving several rooms from the corridor isn't a budget question: it's a construction question. Concrete walls, metal doors and bathrooms in the signal path decide for you.
We measure on site before deciding, and then cable accordingly — because changing your mind once the walls are closed means another round of building work. We install business wireless networks with access points powered by PoE from the floor rack, managed centrally.
Suites, event rooms and terraces need different things
An event room with two hundred people connected at the same time is a density problem that no corridor coverage can solve. A terrace is an outdoor problem, with equipment built for the purpose.
A floor of suites is a roaming problem, so that the guest's call doesn't drop between the room and the lift. We size each zone by the number of devices expected, and the Wi-Fi generation to use comes out of that calculation, not out of a catalogue.
The guest network must not see operations
Every day, dozens of devices that nobody controls enter the hotel. The guest network must be isolated from the PMS, point-of-sale (POS) terminals, video surveillance and staff devices — and guests must be isolated from one another within the guest network itself. We configure the captive portal, per-session usage limits and the monitoring that shows a floor has lost coverage before the complaint reaches reception.
A guest doesn't complain about the Wi-Fi at reception: they write about it when they get home. That's why coverage is measured room by room at handover, not estimated from the floor plan.
Wireless network projects in hospitality
At the LX Arch Hotel, on Rua Augusta, guest Wi-Fi 7 was part of the same project as the structured network and the firewall, ready on opening day. At the Ouro Rossio Hotel we installed 30 Wi-Fi access points alongside 55 cameras and the firewall. We have also written about Wi-Fi for hotels and separating the guest network from operations and about wireless networks for hotels in Lisbon.
DataRoad IT Unlimited
Talk to DataRoad. We assess your operation and propose the right plan.
Video surveillance in hotels: the footage the next day demands
A hotel is a building through which dozens of strangers pass every day, with access to corridors, lifts, car park and public areas at any hour.
When something goes wrong — luggage that goes missing, damage to a room, an argument at the bar door, a bump in the car park — the difference between resolving it in ten minutes and dragging it out for weeks lies in whether or not there is usable footage of the right moment. That's why we install professional video surveillance at the same time as the network: the cameras depend on it.
Start with the objective, not the number of cameras
Deterring, identifying someone, verifying a process or gathering evidence are different objectives that lead to different projects. A panoramic camera covering the whole lobby tells you there was movement; it doesn't tell you who it was.
In a hotel, the points that almost always require identification are the main entrance, reception, access to the floors and the car park exit — and those are the ones that need face-level framing, with attention to backlighting from glazed façades. The rest of the building is handled with pass-through coverage. Two cameras well aimed at the entrances are worth more than ten filming empty space.
Where the law says no
Hotel video surveillance is the processing of personal data, and there are lines that must not be crossed: rooms, bathrooms, changing rooms and staff rest areas are excluded, and capture must not extend to the public highway.
On top of that come visible signage before each monitored area, a defined retention period that is actually applied, a log of who viewed which footage and the information owed to employees — the purpose cannot be to monitor the performance of those who work there. We deal with this at the design stage and hand over the compliance dossier with the system, not after someone complains.
Cameras live on the hotel network
An IP camera is a computer connected to your network and powered through its own cable. That leads to two decisions made at the structured cabling stage: the switches must have enough PoE power budget for every camera — adding cameras to a switch with no headroom produces random reboots that nobody can diagnose later — and CCTV must sit on a separate network from the guests, the PMS and the POS.
Video traffic is continuous and heavy, and video surveillance equipment has historically been among the least frequently updated. On a flat network, a compromised camera is an open door to the billing system.
How many days back do you need to go?
The question that sizes the recorder isn't how many cameras you have: it's how many days back you need to be able to go. That answer, multiplied by the number of cameras and the image quality, gives you the storage required — and this is where most systems fall short, overwriting exactly the period that mattered.
We install NVR recorders with encrypted storage, configured retention and copies of critical footage, with remote access on mobile and desktop through user roles: management doesn't see the same as reception, and there's a record of who viewed what.
A camera that stopped recording three weeks ago is exactly the same as having no camera. After installation, the system is kept under maintenance: periodic checks of cameras and recording, firmware updates, failure alerts and rapid replacement of faulty equipment — all under the same monthly fee that covers the rest of the infrastructure.
Video surveillance projects in hospitality
At the Ouro Rossio Hotel in Lisbon, we installed 55 cameras with continuous recording alongside 30 Wi-Fi access points and a firewall, covering entrances, corridors, reception, the car park and outdoor areas. At the LX Arch Hotel, on Rua Augusta, video surveillance was part of the same project as the structured network, guest Wi-Fi 7 and the firewall, all up and running on opening day and under continuous management ever since.
If you'd like to understand the decisions before requesting a quote, our guide to IP video surveillance projects for businesses explains what determines whether the footage will be of any use.
How we work in a hotel that stays open
- On-site surveyReal coverage measured floor by floor, an inventory of existing active equipment and a review of the floor plan with management.
- Design and phasingA plan by wing or by floor, with windows agreed with operations and a rollback plan for each phase.
- DeliveryCabling, racks, active equipment and configuration. Every outlet certified, with the report handed over.
- OperationContinuous monitoring, user support and a coverage review whenever the hotel changes its layout.
Real cases
See all DataRoad projects and news
Practical guides on the DataRoad blog: Hotels: seasonal staff access without the risk · Wi-Fi 6, 6E or 7: a guide for decision-makers · Blackout: could your business last 8 hours?
Frequently asked questions
Do we need an access point in every room?
Not always. In modern buildings with lightweight walls, one access point can serve two to three rooms. In older buildings with thick walls, one per room is often the only solution that works. Only an on-site survey can tell.
Can we keep our PMS?
Yes. We don't sell or replace hotel management software. We look after the network, security and availability it relies on.
How long does installation take in a hotel that stays open?
It depends on the number of rooms and the condition of the existing cabling. We work in phases — usually wing by wing — so the whole hotel is never affected at the same time.
Is the video surveillance legally compliant?
The technical side is: reliable recording, configurable retention periods and logged access. Signage and recording the data processing are the hotel's obligations, and we support the technical side of both.
Other sectors we support
- IT for Clinics and Healthcare Facilities
- IT for Offices and Multinationals
- IT for the Public Sector
- IT for Embassies and International Organisations
- IT for Schools, Colleges and Universities
Related reading
Business Wireless Networks: Why Home Wi-Fi Won't Do
Wireless networks for businesses: the four problems behind Wi-Fi failures, why more access points can make the network worse, the role of the site survey…
IT for Hotels: Wi-Fi, PMS and Networks That Cannot Fail
IT infrastructure in hospitality: why Wi-Fi is a product and not just infrastructure, the mandatory separation between the guest network and the man…
How we work
This service is provided exclusively under an IT Unlimited contract.
DataRoad does not provide one-off (one-shot) assistance, nor does it sell equipment on its own. We work under a contract with a fixed monthly fee, taking full responsibility for the client's environment.
