This Hotel Portfolio Skipped the DAS Build. Its Wi-Fi Already Did the Job.
Instead of waiting on a distributed antenna system that carriers were no longer funding, Ocean Properties put the Wi-Fi it already owned to work through the Helium Network.
Ocean Properties, the family-owned group behind the Opal Collection brand, now carries mobile carrier traffic on the enterprise Wi-Fi its hotels already own. It uses Wi-Fi offload through the Helium Network instead of a distributed antenna system. Guests connect automatically, with no app and no sign-in page, in rooms where carrier signal never reached. No new hardware was installed and no construction was required.
Why are carriers no longer funding DAS in hotels?
A distributed antenna system (DAS) is a network of small antennas installed throughout a building that relays a mobile carrier's signal indoors, where the outdoor macro network cannot reach. For two decades, large venues could count on carriers to subsidize these builds.
Those subsidies are drying up. DAS is expensive to install and maintain, and hotels have landed far down the carrier priority list. A resort with 200 rooms of concrete and ocean views is now expected to either fund the build itself or let guests live with whatever signal survives the walls.
How can a hotel carry carrier traffic without a DAS?
Wi-Fi offload moves mobile traffic off the cellular network and onto Wi-Fi. Devices authenticate using the credentials already on the SIM, so there is no app to install and no captive portal to click through. To the guest, the phone simply has service.
Ocean Properties' hotels already own enterprise Wi-Fi built for full occupancy, with access points in hallways and guest rooms. Working with Helium, those same access points now do double duty: guest internet as before, plus carrier traffic on a separate SSID.
Ocean Properties has signed up 72 venues across five of its brands through Helium Plus.
"Hotels spent two decades paying seven figures for DAS systems, in order to have indoor coverage. These properties already made the investment. The Wi-Fi is on the walls; Helium lets it do double duty." Eric Eife, a partner on the Ocean Properties deployments.
How much traffic do the Bar Harbor hotels carry?
Bar Harbor, Maine is where the model proved out. Three Ocean Properties hotels there, the Harborside Hotel, the West Street Hotel, and the Bar Harbor Regency, came online ahead of the 2026 tourist season.
Together the three carried 20.4 terabytes in July 2026, up from 52 gigabytes in January 2026. That is a seasonal swing of roughly 390x, absorbed with no new hardware and no construction (Helium Network data, September 2026).
The three properties do very different coverage jobs, on the access points each already had on its walls:
Property | Location | Access points carrying traffic | Data carried | Sessions | Unique users |
West Street Hotel | Bar Harbor, ME | 30 | 3.7 TB | 434,576 | 28,109 |
Bar Harbor Regency | Bar Harbor, ME | 58 | 6.3 TB | 386,690 | 3,699 |
Harborside Hotel | Bar Harbor, ME | 89 | 2.9 TB | 356,364 | 12,369 |
Olde Naples Hotel | Naples, FL | 1 | 1.5 TB | 133,918 | 4,772 |
All figures cover the 30 days ending September 9, 2026 (Helium Network data).
The West Street Hotel sits on Bar Harbor's downtown waterfront and served 28,109 unique users in that window, most of it foot traffic passing through the busiest block in town. The Bar Harbor Regency, a 200-plus-room resort property, served far fewer people but moved the most data of any hotel in the portfolio, 6.3 terabytes from overnight guests. One Network, two very different jobs.
What does day-one coverage look like at a new property?
The Olde Naples Hotel, the Opal Collection's boutique property on Third Street South in Naples, Florida, is the newest data point. Its network began carrying carrier traffic on May 22, 2026, and it has carried 6.8 terabytes across 713,854 sessions since, from a single access point (Helium Network data, September 9, 2026).
What does a hotel need to get started?
Existing enterprise Wi-Fi with controller access, and access points already covering the guest areas that need coverage. Guest Wi-Fi service is unchanged, and carrier traffic runs on a separate SSID.
Ocean Properties joins a growing set of venues and cities using the Helium Network to close indoor coverage gaps without new capital spend, including Resorts World New York City, Celina, TX, and BWI Airport.
As of September 2026, the Helium Network spans more than 42,000 Hotspots across the United States, serving an average of more than 1.5 million people every day.
Want to bring Helium to your hotel or resort? Email business@helium.com.
