Beacon Placement Best Practices - Hospitality

Beacon Placement Best Practices - Hospitality

Overview 

Relay's location beacons are designed specifically to work with your Relays in order to provide indoor location information for your day-to-day operations and during emergency incidents. Installing your location beacons is required before your Relay system will be able to report any indoor location information and be ready to function as your panic solution.


Beacon range varies depending on which size beacon you have. We offer standard, and XL beacons. A standard beacon will range 25-50 feet, and an. XL will typically range 70 feet. Range depends on barriers such as walls, furniture, equipment, or people. The placement of your location beacons will vary based on many factors including your building’s layout, size, construction materials, etc.

                        Standard                                           XL 

In general, a beacon should be placed in the following manner: 

  • Relay logo (if using standard beacons) or grey power button (if using XL beacons) facing towards the room

  • Not behind significant barriers, such as a thick wall or metal

  • In a dry area

Avoid placing a beacon:

  • Under a bed facing downwards

  • Behind a metal structure

  • In guest room bathrooms, unless it is a common-area bathroom where location tracking is required

  • On movable furniture that might get shifted to another guest room

Beacon Orientation

  1. Beacons must be oriented a specific way for an accurate signal projection. For more information on how to orient a beacon,  reference this article. 

Guest Rooms 

Standard Guest Rooms

Depending on the room layout, a few beacon placements may achieve proper coverage. Please follow the recommended setup(s) if possible.
Notes💡 Regardless of the setup placement, each room should have a consistent beacon placement to ensure accurate locations in each room.

Recommendation #1 - On the window sill

Place a beacon on the window sill with the Relay logo (if standard beacon) or grey power button (if XL beacon) facing outwards into the room. This will ensure the beacon projects the strongest signal into the guest room. If possible, place the beacon vertically-central rather than on the ceiling or floor. If hiding the beacon is desired, behind a window valence is often a great option.


Recommendation #2 - Central location in the room

If it’s not possible to place a beacon on the exterior wall, the next best spot will be a location central to the room. Somewhere the beacon can be placed with the Relay logo facing outwards into the majority of the room is preferred. Such locations may include above the closet door frame or behind the television.

Suites

Suites with multiple rooms will require a beacon placed in each main room with the Relay logo facing the center of the area where it is placed.

Two Room Example

Three Room Example


Common Areas

Hallways, Stairwells, and Elevator Lobbies

Placing beacons in the hallways, stairwell, and elevator lobby will ensure full coverage on guest floors.
  1. Hallways: Place one beacon at each end of the hallway and every 50ft (for standard beacons), or every 70 feet (for XL beacons).
    1. In general for standard beacons this ends up being about one beacon every 8 rooms for hallways with rooms on each side, or one beacon every 4 rooms for hallways with only one side of rooms. For XL beacons, this ends up being about one beacon every 16 rooms for hallways with rooms on each side, or one beacon every 8 rooms for hallways with only one side of rooms. 
  2. Stairwells: Place one beacon on each individual stairwell landing.
  3. Elevator lobbies: Place one beacon in each elevator lobby.
    1. Note: A guest lobby and service elevator will require separate beacons.

Main Lobby & Front Desk

  1. Front Desk: Place one beacon behind the front desk.
  2. Main Lobby: Place one beacon every 25 - 50 feet (for standard beacons) or 70 feet (for XL beacons) throughout the lobby. If there are significant barriers or if the lobby turns corners, additional beacons will need to be placed to cover these areas beyond the standard 25 feet (for standard beacons) or every 70 feet (for XL beacons).

Public Rooms: Conference Rooms, Ballrooms, Fitness Center, Spa

  1. Small rooms (smaller than 20’x20’): Place a beacon centrally in the room. 
  2. Medium rooms (up to 25’x40’ or 30’x30): 
    1. Standard beacons: If the room is square or rectangular, completely open, and allows the beacon to be placed in the center you may place one beacon centrally. If these conditions can’t all can't be met, two beacons will be needed, likely on opposite walls facing inwards towards the center of the room.
    2. XL beacons: Place one beacon centrally
  3. Large rooms (greater than 25’x40’ or 30’x30’): 
    1. Standard beacons: Place beacons roughly every 25 feet throughout the room.
    2. XL beacons: Place beacons roughly every 70 feet throughout the room. 
Open rooms such as ballrooms may not allow for beacons centrally throughout the room. In this case, place beacons alongside the exterior walls facing inwards toward the center of the room

Common Area Restrooms

  1. Small restrooms: Place one beacon under each restroom sink.
  2. Large restrooms: Place one beacon in each main section of the bathroom (for example, if there is a dividing wall between the stalls and sinks).

Restaurant & Bar

  1. Small restaurants: (2-10 tables) or cafes may have one beacon centrally located.
  2. Larger restaurants: 
    1. Standard beacons: Place one beacon every 25 feet with the Relay logo facing towards the room.
    2. XL Beacons: Place one beacon every 70 feet with the Relay logo facing toward the room. 

Outdoor Areas 

Outdoor areas where employees frequent should be covered with a beacon, if possible. If there is exposure to the elements, we recommend sourcing a 3rd party waterproof cover to place the beacon in. While Relay does not offer a specific cover, some of our customers have had good success using covers found on Amazon such as these: regular beacon cover, XL beacon cover.

This includes but is not limited to:
  1. Pool Area: Place one beacon every 25 feet (standard beacons) or 70 feet (XL beacons) in the pool area.
  2. Valet Area: Place one beacon at the valet desk.
  3. Loading Dock: Place one beacon in a small loading dock or one beacon every 25 feet (standard beacons) or 70 feet (XL beacons) for larger docks. 
  4. Parking Deck: If you would like location coverage in these areas and the wifi or cell connectivity is good, you may place beacons throughout the parking deck.
    1. Note: Beacons in the parking decks are optional; the ‘full deployment’ coverage will not include parking decks unless specifically needed. 

Employee Areas 

Back of House Offices

Back of House Offices should contain one beacon for each office and an additional beacon in hallways roughly every 25 feet (for standard beacons) or every 70 feet (for XL beacons). If an office contains significant barriers such as walls or is larger than 25’x40’, an additional beacon should be placed roughly every 25 feet (for standard beacons) or every 70 feet (for XL beacons).

Notes
💡 This is especially helpful, as these offices are often the places where Relay devices are charging. Covering these areas with beacons will ensure accurate location information for loss-prevention measures.

Kitchen

  1. Small kitchen (smaller than 20’x20’): One beacon centrally located on a wall and not directly on or near cooking equipment.
  2. Large kitchen: One beacon every 25 feet (for standard beacons) or every 70 feet (for XL beacons). In most cases, one beacon on each major wall should suffice.

Additional information 

  • After set up, beacons may report as “No Pings” until you fully roll out Relay. If a Relay Device hasn’t visited a specific location, it will read as No Ping despite a beacon being placed correctly. To test a specific beacon, walk to the room with a Relay Device and open the Relay Pro App. Navigate to Location, and check to see if the Relay device you are using updated accurately.

  • For information on how to install beacons, reference this article

  • For information on how to configure floorplans in Dash, reference this article