Keeping a watchful eye on the riverside

Warren Lodge sits on the banks of the Thames in Church Square, Shepperton. Guests stay in the main hotel, in the river rooms and in two garden bungalows, with a public bar, lounge, function room and two terraces in between. It is managed by General Manager Sarah Artis, who also runs the Best Western Ship Hotel in Weybridge. Both hotels have been with MFC since 2023, when a systems review led to a fully managed IT service.

When MFC took over, the hotels’ IT had been left in a poor state. A review of both sites found ageing equipment, tangled cabling and temporary fixes that had quietly become permanent. MFC brought both hotels onto a fully managed service and set about putting things right.

A historic site with many buildings is hard to cover. The old Wi-Fi struggled with thick walls and outbuildings, guests in the furthest rooms noticed, and by spring 2024 slow guest Wi-Fi was turning into complaints. Behind it sat an aged network switch and untidy cabling that made problems hard to trace.

The CCTV had similar problems. Cameras were ageing, picture quality was poor, some were failing and key areas such as the bar, reception and kitchen were not covered properly. There was no easy way to view footage remotely, which is not practical for a manager who splits her week between two hotels.

"Running two hotels, I can't be in both places at once. I needed to know the cameras were working and that guests could get online wherever they were staying." Sarah Artis, General Manager

MFC started with the foundations. Through 2024 the hotel was given a new business-grade firewall, a 1Gb dedicated internet line, and a new Ubiquiti UniFi network switch in place of the old one, with the comms cupboard rebuilt and every network socket tested.

With that in place, MFC installed a new Wi-Fi system in November 2024: ten Ubiquiti UniFi Wi-Fi 7 access points across the hotel, powered from a dedicated network switch. Guests noticed straight away. Within days, a long-stay guest in the suite at the back of the hotel was telling staff how much better the signal was.

"Our guests could tell the difference straight away. Even the rooms at the far end of the hotel now get a strong signal." Sarah Artis

The CCTV came next. In August 2025 Sarah walked the hotel with MFC's Will Benjamin-James and agreed exactly what each camera needed to see: the back office and public bar, reception, the bar and lounge, both terraces, the river rooms from both sides, the staff entrance, the kitchen and the front of the hotel. In October, over four days, MFC and its cabling partner, DR Data & Communications, ran 14 new data cables, removed the old cameras and fitted new Ubiquiti UniFi cameras in each agreed position, adding switches for the river rooms and the function room bar. The hotel stayed open throughout, with work planned around guests and service.

"The team worked around us the whole time. Guests barely knew they were there, and the picture quality is a world apart from what we had." Sarah Artis

Because everything runs on one platform, adding to it is simple. The back office gained its own access point, a weatherproof access point now covers the area between the two bungalows, and the network was ready for the new smart TVs as they arrived. Most recently, MFC switched the guest Wi-Fi to a Stampede landing page, so guests who log on can opt in to the hotel's marketing, turning the Wi-Fi into a way to build a direct guest list.

"It is one less thing to worry about. If something is not right, MFC usually know before we do." Sarah Artis

Today the CCTV and Wi-Fi run on one system that MFC monitors and manages. Sarah can check the cameras from her phone wherever she is, guest Wi-Fi complaints have dropped, and the hotel has a network built for whatever it adds next.

• Local and hands-on: engineers who walk the site with you and plan around a working hotel.
• One partner for IT, Wi-Fi and CCTV: no juggling separate installers.
• Managed, not just installed: MFC monitors the network and spots problems early.
• Built for hospitality: guest Wi-Fi, marketing capture and smart TVs on one secure network.
• Phased to suit budget: improvements delivered in stages as the hotel needs them.

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