Overview
RBH Hospitality Management is the UK's leading independent hotel management company, managing a diverse collection of over 70 branded and private label hotel properties. Working in partnership with five of the most prestigious international hotel brands—including IHG, Hilton, Accor, Marriott, and Wyndham—RBH is a driving force in the hospitality industry.
To maintain its reputation for exceptional guest experiences, RBH has partnered with Wifirst to modernise the network infrastructure across selected locations in its portfolio. This targeted standardisation is highlighted by comprehensive network overhauls at key locations, including the 216-room Aberdeen Altens Hotel and the historic, luxury The Met Hotel Leeds.
THE CHALLENGE // Overcoming vendor fragmentation and architectural barriers to guest satisfaction
Prior to partnering with Wifirst, individual properties within the RBH portfolio faced compounding infrastructure bottlenecks that severely impacted guest satisfaction:
- The Support Blame-Game: At Aberdeen Altens, the hotel had invested heavily in legacy WiFi and data line services. Over time, performance degraded. When issues arose, hotel staff found themselves caught in an exhausting loop between separate WiFi and data line providers—neither of whom would accept responsibility for the network failures.
- Complex Historic Infrastructure: The Met Hotel Leeds presented a distinct physical challenge. As a premium, historic building, its thick walls and complex layout severely blocked legacy wireless signals. The existing infrastructure could not handle the modern density of guest devices or provide the seamless coverage expected of a luxury city-centre hotel.
Across these sites, fractured vendor relationships, inadequate coverage, and skyrocketing operational headaches threatened to compromise RBH's high standards for digital hospitality.
THE SOLUTION // Engineering tailored WiFi as a Service and single-provider accountability
Wifirst stepped in as a single, accountable infrastructure partner, engineering tailored WiFi as a Service (WaaS) deployments to match the unique footprint of each property:
- Comprehensive Site Audits: Wifirst conducted deep onsite wireless audits at both properties to pinpoint dead zones, interference, and architectural barriers.
- Full-Scale Hardware Overhauls: Wifirst completely stripped out the legacy setups. At both Aberdeen Altens and The Met Leeds, teams deployed next-generation enterprise wireless access points, managed network switches, and clean, high-performance cabling throughout all guest rooms, public lounges, and conference spaces.
- The "One-Stop-Shop" Connectivity Engine: To eliminate vendor finger-pointing, Wifirst connected the new local infrastructure to dedicated, superfast Fibre Leased Lines. Wifirst took total ownership of the entire tech stack—from the incoming fibre circuit to the individual guest's device connection.
THE RESULTS // Delivering seamless high-speed performance, absolute accountability, and financial efficiency
The partnership has transformed the digital infrastructure across these key RBH properties, yielding measurable improvements in both guest sentiment and operational clarity:
- Seamless, High-Density Performance: Guests at both properties now enjoy blistering fast, unlimited, and reliable free WiFi. The Met Leeds successfully overcame its structural barriers, providing uniform coverage from historic suites to open public spaces.
- Operational Peace of Mind: For hotel staff, day-to-day network management has become a breath of fresh air. Wifirst proactively monitors the health of the data lines and local networks simultaneously.
- 24/7 Total Accountability: Wifirst provides round-the-clock technical support for both guests and staff, entirely removing the troubleshooting burden from RBH's onsite teams.
- Optimised Financial Efficiency: By consolidating disparate contracts into Wifirst’s fully managed service model, RBH successfully lowered its total associated IT costs at these locations while drastically improving performance.
Looking Ahead: Growing Together
The successful deployments at Aberdeen Altens and The Met Hotel Leeds serve as a strong blueprint for the ongoing relationship between Wifirst and RBH Group. As hospitality technology continues to evolve—driven by the rise of in-room streaming (Chromecast), smart IoT management, and completely contactless guest check-ins—robust network infrastructure remains the backbone of modern hospitality.
Wifirst and RBH Group are committed to exploring future opportunities to expand this scalable foundation to additional properties within the RBH estate. By standardising connectivity under a single, proactive managed service provider, RBH is perfectly positioned to rapidly deploy future digital innovations, streamline operational overhead, and guarantee a premium, frictionless digital experience wherever Wifirst is deployed.
