Parkdean Resorts is the leading operator of holiday parks in the UK, with 65 award-winning holiday parks across England, Scotland and Wales. Its guest WiFi service is used by over 3 million holidaymakers and 20,000 holiday home owners every year.
To successfully run its sites, Parkdean Resorts requires reliable guest WiFi to ensure excellent customer satisfaction, loyalty and differentiation. Park operations depend on it for customer ordering and payments in the retail outlets, using mobile payment systems and supporting the teams on the park for maintenance, cleaning and much more.
Challenge
When the old system had reached its limit, Wifinity stepped in to upgrade the previous guest WiFi service, infrastructure and hardware. To maintain performance, support customer satisfaction and corporate services, Wifinity refreshed the solution.
Requirement
- Great connectivity for guests, employees and operations
- Simplified guest WiFi user experience
- Premium ‘paid for’ and freemium tiers
- Scalable network to cope with park expansion
- Fully managed service
Cost effective integration with existing infrastructure
Solution
It started the process of site surveys in 2019 and during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 when the parks were closed. Parkdean Resorts took the early opportunity to restructure its park WiFi and invest in an upgrade programme to support with future growth, site expansion and guest bandwidth demand. This included a new direct-to-van (DTV) solution using Cambium backhaul and Ruckus access points, enabling easier online access, coupled with a fully white-labelled captive portal.
A corporate SD-WAN service provides high speed, local internet breakout for cloud-based services and an overlay VPN service connects to the datacentre hosted private services.
Corporate and guest solutions are both delivered as a fully managed service. Wifinity’s team maintains performance, works closely with the Parkdean team to manage network operations and provides 24/7, UK-based customer support, enabling park employees to give guests the best holiday experience.
The upgrade now delivers
Park-wide, high-speed internet access
Corporate WiFi service to run corporate devices
Automatic onboarding for corporate managed devices
Online streaming & entertainment support
Reliable VOIP & video calls to support remote working
Home-like onboarding for guests using DPSK
Free or premium ‘paid for’ guest WiFi options
Flexible holiday guest plans for the day, weekend or week
Fully branded Park Connect service
Choice of monthly or annual services
24/7 customer services with co-branded communications
Monthly service delivery reviews
The guest user journey
“One & done” process
User connects to Parkdean’s signup or sign-in portal.
Key lasts indefinitely
Account created key shown and sent.
Works with any device
Familiar home-like connection process.
No interruptions
No need to re-login or re-enter the password.
‘Wifinity has the leisure sector experience to deliver reliable internet to remote areas of the UK where holidaymakers want to relax. Our service means families can stream, game and stay connected from their caravans and lodges, just as they would at home. A really important service when the British summer is unpredictable.
Our Direct-to-Van (DTV) solution means guests and owners get high-quality internet and WiFi services. Venue WiFi means that park facilities like bars can offer table service and connect handheld devices. Meanwhile, park-wide WiFi means team members can deliver an excellent holiday experience for their guests.’
Kendal Stacey, Director, Parks & Hospitality, Wifinity.
Results
The majority areas of the park are connected so guests can roam without drop-offs. Employees’ corporate devices are also connected to the network.
During its first full season with the new guest WiFi solution:
- More than 500,000 individual accounts were created
- The premium, paid service generated additional revenue
- There was a 400% increase in devices using the optimised DPSK user journey
Customer satisfaction ratings increased
Wifinity and Parkdean continue to work together to drive ongoing improvement and support customer feedback, ensuring a successful 2025 season and excellent guest satisfaction.
Contact
Contact: Account Director for Holiday Parks & Leisure Kendal Stacey / kendal.stacey@wifinity.co.uk.