Tutorials · Wi-Fi
How to Design and Deploy Hotel Wi-Fi Room by Room
A complete hotel Wi-Fi project: requirements, in-room vs corridor design, VLANs for guests, staff, POS and IoT, PoE switching, portal and handover.
Before you start
- Floor plans and room types
- Expected occupancy and services (IPTV, VoIP, POS, locks)
- Internet bandwidth details
Step by step
Agree service targets
For example: every room ≥ 50 Mbps, video calls in lobby and meeting rooms, staff handhelds roaming across back of house.
Choose in-room design
Wall-plate access points in every room (or every second room) give the best guest experience. Corridor-only designs struggle with concrete and bathrooms.
Design public areas separately
Lobby, restaurant, ballrooms and pool need ceiling or outdoor access points sized by occupancy (see high-density design).
Plan the VLANs
Typical: Guests, Staff, POS/PMS, IPTV, VoIP, Cameras, Building/IoT and Management, each with its own subnet and firewall policy.
Size the PoE switching
Count access points, phones and cameras per floor, compute the PoE budget with headroom, and use 10G uplinks to the core.
Configure the guest experience
Guest SSID with client isolation, bandwidth per device, and a captive portal or room-number login linked to the PMS if required.
Protect payments
POS and PMS in isolated VLANs, never reachable from guest or IoT networks.
Install and label
Label every access point and port by room number. Photograph mounting positions.
Validate
Test signal and speed in a sample of every room type, including bathrooms and balconies.
Hand over
Provide as-built drawings, IP plan, passwords in a secure vault and a support contact. Train front-desk staff on basic Wi-Fi questions.
Pro tips
- Plan for 3–4 devices per guest.
- Monitor Wi-Fi complaints by room to spot weak areas early.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an access point in every room?
For consistent, review-proof Wi-Fi in modern concrete buildings, yes, or at least every second room.
Keep learning
Related guides
Hotel solution
Read more →Hotel network checklist
Read more →How to Set Up Secure Guest Wi-Fi With Client Isolation
Give visitors Internet access without exposing your internal network: separate SSID and VLAN, client isolation, bandwidth limits and an optional captive portal.
Read more →How to Plan Wi-Fi Channels on 2.4, 5 and 6 GHz
Reduce interference and increase capacity by choosing the right channels and widths for each band.
Read more →How to Secure Wi-Fi With WPA3-Enterprise and RADIUS
Replace shared Wi-Fi passwords with per-user authentication using 802.1X, a RADIUS server and WPA3-Enterprise (or WPA2-Enterprise for older devices).
Read more →Stuck on a step?
Ask Navijin technical support or an authorised partner for help with your configuration.