Marriott Property Internet Program Update | December 2018
Over the last eight years, Marriott has continued to evolve the Global Property Network Standards (GPNS) program to better serve hotels. At the onset, the focus was enabling wired and wireless access in guest rooms and common areas; over time, this shifted to introducing free and tiered services for guests. This year has been particularly busy in the Property Internet space: Marriott introduced the LAN Service Provider (LSP) Accountability Framework to drive vendor performance and support, expanded the GPNS refresh cycle to five years to make upgrading more predictable and cost-effective, and introduced seamless property roaming at MSB hotels to improve the guest experience. With the year ending, we wanted to notify you of some other program updates.
Updates to Certified Provider Roster
The increased demand and guest expectation for high-speed, high-quality internet had led us to onboard several partners early, but since 2016 we have focused on sourcing the best providers of service for our hotels. At this time, we identified four additional providers with whom we will terminate our partnership effective December 21, 2018.
- Active Networks
- Blueport Wireless
- Broadband Hospitality
- Charter
These four companies provide internet support to 533 hotels (525 franchised, 8 Managed by Marriott (MxM)) in the Americas. Impacted hotels may choose to either exhaust the remaining contract term before switching to a new provider or notify their provider immediately (in accordance with the property agreement) that the hotel intends to transition to another provider early. Hotels in a month-to-month contract status should plan to switch to a new provider as soon as possible.
The four providers have an obligation to continue supporting any properties under their umbrella until their individual property agreements expire. Unless the hotel’s GPNS installation is out of date (i.e., running a version of GPNS prior to 2014), a new provider should be able to assume support with little or no upfront expense by the hotel.
All impacted hotels are still expected to meet applicable brand standard requirements regarding property internet systems.
Brand Standard Reminder
All hotels, including those impacted by the decertification announcement at the top, are still required to meet the Brand Standard requirements regarding GPNS. Operating under the new five-year refresh cycle, the minimum acceptable standard in 2019 will be GPNS version 2014. Hotels with older installations will fail the GPNS question on the BSA (16 pts) if they do not upgrade their system with a certified provider before their audit date.
SPG hotels are still in the midst of GPNS adoption and should pay careful attention to when their hotel is required to implement GPNS through a certified provider. The guidelines for Starwood hotel GPNS adoption are as follows:
- SPG Existing Properties must comply with GPNS technical standards within 90 days of contract expiration or by December 31, 2020, whichever is earlier.
- New Builds/Conversions should open with GPNS
- SPG PIP’s and Renovations: Contracts signed after July 1, 2017 or expiring before June 30, 2019 must comply with the property internet standards by June 30, 2019. All others within 90 days of contract end date
- ALL hotels must comply with Marriott property internet requirements by December 31, 2020.
Over the last few years, Marriott has successfully led centralized RFP’s on behalf of MxM hotels to replace property circuits and networks. Marriott is considering expanding RFP opportunities available to Franchise hotels beginning in 2019. Additional detail on this program will be made available during Q1 2019.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding Marriott’s Property Internet Strategy, contact propertyinternetstrategy@Marriott.com.
