A Detailed Guide for IT Teams to Ensure Reliable Guest Connectivity


HSIA Deployment Checklist for Hotels

(Excluding Infrastructure/Physical Setup)

✅ 1. Pre-Deployment Planning

  •  Define HSIA objectives (guest experience, revenue model, bandwidth needs)

  •  Finalize bandwidth allocation model (per room, per device, peak load)

  •  Decide on business/commercial model (free, tiered, pay-per-use)

  • Review local compliance requirements (data retention, logging, KYC norms)

  • Verify hotel branding elements for guest portal:

    • Hotel logo in correct resolution/format

    • Header/footer aligned with hotel brand guidelines

    • Background images and color scheme as per hotel theme

    • Multilingual font support

✅ 2. Network & Service Design

  •  VLAN & SSID design (guest / staff / IoT segregation)

  •  Captive portal setup (branding, ToS, mobile-optimized, multilingual)

  •  Authentication methods defined (voucher, PMS integration, OTP, SSO)

  •  Bandwidth & QoS policies applied (per device/room caps, fair usage)

  •  Security controls implemented (firewall policies, DoS/DDoS, filtering)

  •  Logging & reporting configured (session data, usage analytics)

  • DHCP pool configuration based on hotel sizing

    • Estimate devices per room (avg. 3–5) × total rooms

    • Add 20–30% buffer for roaming/public area devices

    • Set lease time (e.g., 4–8 hours) for efficient IP recycling

    • Configure multiple DHCP scopes for segmented VLANs

✅ 3. Integration

  •  PMS integration tested (room-based login, billing workflow)

  •  Payment gateway integration verified (for premium/tiered plans)

  •  Loyalty/CRM system integration (optional)

  •  Redundancy & failover configuration validated on the HSIA gateway

  • HA configuration verified (active/standby or active/active setup)

✅ 4. Guest Experience

  •  Single SSID with seamless roaming across hotel zones

  •  Support for multiple devices per guest/room login

  •  Simple and fast captive portal flow (auto-redirect, minimal steps)

  •  Multilingual support enabled

  •  Optional guest feedback mechanism on login page

✅ 5. Testing & Validation

  •  End-to-end user journey test (login, browsing, logout)

  •  Load/stress test for peak concurrency

  •  Roaming & session persistence test

  •  Speed & latency test under normal and peak load

  •  Failover/redundancy testing with ISP/gateway switch

  •  PMS billing accuracy verified

  •  Security validation (penetration tests, vulnerability scans)

  •  DHCP pool exhaustion test (simulate >90% occupancy with multiple devices per room)

  • Permanent license verification

    • Confirm permanent license applied on HSIA gateway/controller

    • Check license reflects correct capacity (bandwidth, devices, AP count)

    • Validate no expiry date or trial limitations remain

  • HA failover test

    • Manually fail primary HSIA gateway

    • Verify backup takes over seamlessly

    • Confirm captive portal sessions persist (no forced re-login)

    • Test failback to primary without guest disruption

✅ 6. Operational Readiness

  •  HSIA monitoring enabled (NMS, SNMP, alerts configured)

  • Enable all notifications & alerts

    • Device/AP down alerts

    • Bandwidth threshold breach alerts

    • DHCP pool exhaustion alerts

    • Authentication failures / captive portal errors

    • PMS integration errors

    • ISP/link down alerts

    • HA failover events

  •  Usage analytics dashboards active (per room, per user, per plan)

  •  Helpdesk workflow ready (ticketing, L1 scripts, escalation matrix)

  •  SLA & escalation timelines finalized with vendor/ISP

  •  Staff trained on portal access, troubleshooting, and reporting

  •  Spare HSIA gateway/license pool available for emergencies

✅ 7. Post-Deployment

  •  Documentation completed (IP plan, VLANs, DHCP pools, HA config, license details, notification rules, branding assets, policies, credentials)

  •  Handover of admin access and reporting to hotel IT/management

  •  Maintenance schedule for firmware & system updates defined

  •  Escalation contacts shared with hotel IT and management