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Summit Internet
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When the Card Machine Stops, the Night Stops

A venue's connection carries the POS, the card payments, the delivery tablets, the bookings, the guest wifi and the music, all at once, on your busiest night. Summit puts a business-grade service underneath it with 4G backup that fails over automatically, so a dropped connection doesn't become a room full of people who can't pay.

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The Connectivity Challenge

Hospitality has quietly become one of the most connectivity-dependent industries in the country, and it happened without anyone deciding to make it so.

Consider what a single connection carries in a mid-sized venue on a Friday night. The point of sale, whether that's Square, Lightspeed, Impos or Doshii. Card payments, which is now most of your revenue, since cash barely features. Two or three delivery tablets for UberEats, DoorDash and Menulog, each pinging constantly. The bookings platform, and the emails and texts it sends. Guest wifi for a hundred people who all want it. Streaming music through the room. Digital menu boards. Staff scheduling apps. Cameras. And the phone, which is increasingly a VoIP service riding on the same connection.

When that connection degrades, it does not fail politely. Card terminals time out mid-transaction, which is worse than being down, because staff cannot tell whether a payment went through. Orders stop arriving from the delivery platforms, and the platforms' own metrics start penalising you for it. The booking system cannot confirm the walk-in you just seated. Meanwhile you have a full room and a queue at the counter, and nobody in the building has time to reboot a router in a cupboard, let alone sit in a support queue.

The economics make this brutal in a way that most industries don't experience. Your revenue is concentrated into a small number of hours. A four-hour outage on a Tuesday afternoon is an annoyance. The same four hours on a Saturday night is a meaningful share of the week's takings, and it happens in front of customers, some of whom write about it publicly. There is no catching up later; the covers you lost are simply lost.

Guest wifi introduces a problem venues rarely think through. In most setups, the network carrying customer devices is the same one carrying your POS and card payments. That is a genuine risk to the systems handling your money, and it is also a performance problem: a hundred phones auto-updating in the room will happily starve your terminals of bandwidth at exactly the wrong moment.

The phone is more valuable than the sector treats it. Bookings, functions, large-group enquiries and supplier calls all arrive by phone, and function enquiries are among the highest-value calls a venue receives. But the phone rings during service, when everyone is busy, so it rings out, and a function enquiry that rings out goes to the next venue on the list. Very few venues have any idea how many calls they miss, because nothing measures it.

Accommodation and tourism operators carry all of this plus their own layer. A property management system and a channel manager syncing to Booking.com, Expedia and Airbnb, where a sync failure means a double booking rather than just a delay. Guest wifi that is now a reviewed amenity, so poor wifi shows up in your rating and your rating drives your occupancy. Check-in systems, keyless entry and in-room streaming.

And for regional tourism operators, the challenge is more fundamental: the connectivity at the address may simply be poor. The winery, the caravan park, the tour operator and the accommodation an hour outside the city are exactly where visitors want to be and exactly where infrastructure is thinnest. Add seasonality, where a business does much of its trade in a few months, and every one of those weeks has to work.

How Summit Helps Venues and Tourism Operators

  • 4G Backup That Fails Over Before Anyone Notices

    If you take one thing from this page, take this. Automatic failover is the single highest-value service a venue can add, because the cost of an outage in hospitality is concentrated and public.

    Summit's 4G backup detects a primary connection failure and takes over on its own. Card payments keep processing, the POS stays online, delivery orders keep arriving and the phone keeps ringing. Nobody reboots anything, nobody stands in a support queue during service, and the night keeps going.

  • Guest Wifi That Has Nothing to Do With Your Card Payments

    Customer devices should not share a network with the systems that take your money. We deliver the connection and the addressing that makes proper separation possible, so guest traffic and your POS traffic can be kept apart and guest usage can be prevented from starving your terminals of bandwidth.

    The configuration inside the venue is your IT provider's or POS vendor's work, and we'll talk to them about it directly. If nobody currently owns it, we'll tell you plainly that this is worth paying someone to set up once, because it protects the systems that handle your revenue.

  • A Phone That Answers Even Mid-Service

    Summit's cloud phone system is built for a business where nobody can stand next to a handset.

    • Ring groups: a booking call rings several phones at once instead of one that's unattended
    • After-hours routing: outside service hours, calls go to a message, a mobile, or the manager on duty
    • Voicemail to email: a function enquiry left at 8pm is in the inbox of the person who quotes functions, timestamped
    • IVR menus: send bookings, functions and general enquiries to different places so the high-value call is not queued behind a question about opening hours
    • A single 1300 number: one number across multiple venues, routing to whichever should answer
    • Call recording: available where you want a record of a function or group booking conversation

    A function enquiry is worth thousands. It should not depend on who happens to be near the phone.

  • Capacity for Everything Running at Once

    Sizing a venue's connection by staff headcount gets it wrong every time, because your load comes from customers, terminals and tablets rather than desks. We size on what is actually connected and how it behaves during service, then leave headroom for the busiest night rather than the average one.

  • Connectivity for Sites Where Infrastructure Is Thin

    For metropolitan venues in our Melbourne coverage area, fixed wireless delivers over the air with no lead-in build, live in 10 days or your first month is free, which suits venues in older buildings and basements where fibre never arrived.

    Our fixed wireless network covers Melbourne, so for a regional operator we'll be straight with you: the answer is business NBN where it's decent, a 4G service where it isn't, and frequently both together so a weak primary connection has something underneath it. Send us the address and we'll tell you what's actually achievable rather than what sounds good.

  • Multiple Venues on One Account

    Two restaurants, a bar and a function space, or several accommodation properties, all on one account with one phone system and one bill. Calls transfer between venues, one number can route to whichever should answer, and adding the next site is a variation on an account we already manage.

Services That Matter to Hospitality and Tourism

Everything below comes from Summit on one account, one bill and one number to ring. Tap any one for the detail.

Talk to an expert

Not sure which option is right for your business?

Book a short call with one of our network specialists. Tell them how your business actually runs and they will tell you which access technology suits it, which ones do not, and why. If the cheaper option is the right one, they will say so.

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Why Venues and Tourism Operators Choose Summit

  • 01

    We Design for the Busiest Night, Not the Average One

    An average is a useless number in hospitality. What matters is whether the connection holds at 8pm on a Saturday with a full room, a queue of card payments and three delivery tablets running. That is the load we size for, and it's why we push backup so hard in this sector.

  • 02

    Backup Is a Revenue Decision, Not an IT One

    We'll make the case for automatic failover in plain commercial terms: what one hour of a Saturday night is worth to you, against what backup costs per month. In hospitality that comparison usually isn't close, and it's a conversation about revenue rather than about technology.

  • 03

    One Provider Across Every Venue

    Internet, phones, numbers, mobiles and backup from Summit on one bill, with one number to ring. During service you do not want to be working out whose problem this is, and with a single provider there is no gap between vendors for it to fall into.

  • 04

    We'll Tell You When the Honest Answer Is Modest

    A regional operator with thin infrastructure and a café with four terminals need very different things, and neither needs to be sold an enterprise service. On fixed wireless we own the network and cover Melbourne; outside it we'll tell you frankly what's achievable at your address, including when the right answer is an NBN service with 4G underneath it.

Other services businesses pair this with

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Why Australian Businesses Choose Summit Internet

  • The Summit Team have always been a pleasure to work with; we highly recommend their services. Thank you for the continued support.

    Paul Braithwaite

    3 months ago

  • We recently moved our dental practice over to Summit for phone services, and the experience has been excellent from start to finish. The team has been responsive, professional, and incredibly helpful throughout the entire setup process. The transition was smooth, any issues were addressed promptly, and communication was always clear and efficient. Reliable phones and internet are essential for a busy practice like ours, and Summit has delivered exactly that. A special thank you to Michael for his patience and ongoing assistance during the transition. Highly recommend Summit to any business looking for reliable service and great customer support.Read more

    Elli Darabi

    3 months ago

  • The best service !!! Got issue fixed out by Greg ^^

    白大倫

    3 months ago

  • The whole team at Summit have been great from the initial onboarding to the rapid responses from Max when we need to make changes or additions to our services. Can't recommend them enough!

    Aaron Klaver

    3 months ago

  • As the I.T. Manager for Hydronic Systems Australia, Summit helps provide me and our companies with consistently stable Business Grade Internet, backed up by a dedicated Fixed Wireless Broadband connection. They also saved us a serious amount of money on our mobile phone bills. We have had no serious issues, and our business has been rock-solid under there great service. Highly Recommended.Read more

    James Paterson

    4 months ago

  • Prompt and efficient service. Highly recommend

    Elliot Bell

    4 months ago

  • We now use Summit across our real estate network. Great family business, reliable and their attention to detail is outstanding. Highly recommend.

    Ryan Bell

    4 months ago

  • As a reseller, we primarily work with Summit’s 4G services and have been very impressed. The plans are affordable, flexible, and well suited to our customers—especially for internet failover solutions. The sales and support teams are responsive and genuinely helpful, which is why we’re proud to partner with Summit Internet. We happily recommend them.Read more

    Mal Skinner

    4 months ago

  • After working with another ISP for several months to deliver a critical internet service for a major international sporting event, we were ultimately advised that the required upgrade was unlikely to be completed prior to event week. This left us facing a significant risk to service delivery. After exhausting all other options (and a few sleepless nights) we came across Summit Internet. From the initial conversation, Allan immediately understood the severity of the situation and quickly engaged his technical delivery team. Michael “Radar” was on site within days to assess and finalise a solution. Despite challenging conditions, including large trees and other obstructions, he worked tirelessly to design and implement an alternative approach. Leveraging an adjacent building, a temporary NBN connection, and a wireless link into the comms room, the solution was delivered within 24 hours of the initial site visit. Not only was the outcome faster than expected, but it was also more cost effective and delivered higher speeds than originally promised by the previous ISP. Over the course of the event, the service handled terabytes of data and supported hundreds of concurrent users without a single speed or performance issue. I cannot thank Summit Internet, particularly Allan and Radar enough for their exceptional service, technical expertise, and commitment to delivering under pressure. Highly recommended.Read more

    Adam Hastie

    4 months ago

  • Fausto and the staff at Summit are amazing. We have had nothing but fantastic service from start up to problem solving issues. The system is easy to use. Would highly recommend this service provider.

    Jo Bodhankar

    4 months ago

  • Summit internet recently set my small business up with a local land line number and a soft phone that runs off an app on my mobile - getting my personal phone number off the internet and being able to distinguish between business and personal calls is a game changer. Whole process took less than a week, and is super cost effective. Highly recommend.Read more

    Alex Holly

    6 months ago

  • Great service, efficient and smooth from start to finish!

    Marija Cavlina

    9 months ago

Reviews from Google. Read all reviews on Google

Frequently asked questions

Our card payments dropped out on a Saturday night. How do we stop that happening again?
Automatic 4G failover, and it's the reason most venues call us. When the primary connection fails, the backup takes over on its own, so terminals keep processing and the POS stays online. No one has to notice, diagnose or reboot anything during service. Given what an hour of a Saturday night is worth, it's the cheapest useful thing you can add.
Can guest wifi be kept separate from our POS and card terminals?
Yes, and it should be. Customer devices sharing a network with the systems that take your money is both a security risk and a performance problem, since a room full of phones will compete with your terminals for bandwidth. We provide the connection and addressing that makes proper separation possible and will work directly with your IT provider or POS vendor on the configuration inside the venue.
We're a regional tourism operator and the internet here is poor. Can you help?
Sometimes, and we'll be honest about which. Our fixed wireless network covers Melbourne, so at a regional address we're looking at business NBN where it's reasonable, a 4G service where it isn't, and often both so a weak primary has backup underneath it. Send us the address and we'll tell you what's genuinely achievable rather than overpromising.
How many function enquiries are we missing?
Most venues have no idea, which is the problem. Ring groups mean a call rings several phones rather than one nobody is standing near, after-hours calls route to a mobile or a message instead of ringing out, and voicemail to email puts an 8pm enquiry in front of the person who quotes functions. Given what a single function is worth, this usually pays for the phone system on its own.
We have three venues. Can they share a phone system and one bill?
Yes. One hosted phone system spans all of them, calls transfer between venues, and a single 1300 number can route to whichever site should answer or by time of day. Everything appears on one bill with one support contact.
Do you connect accommodation properties with a PMS and channel manager?
Yes. The requirement there is reliability rather than raw speed, because a channel manager that can't sync creates a double booking rather than just a delay. We'd usually recommend a business connection with automatic 4G backup, and for larger properties with guest wifi as a reviewed amenity, fibre where it's available.
We're opening a new venue in eight weeks. Can you be ready?
Usually, and it's worth talking to us before you sign the lease. In our Melbourne fixed wireless coverage area we connect a site in 10 days or your first month is free, with no lead-in build, which matters in older buildings and basements. If the site needs NBN or fibre, lead times depend on what's already at the address, so the earlier you tell us, the more options you have.
Get started

Your Busiest Night Is the Worst Possible Time to Find Out.

Talk to Summit about a business connection with automatic 4G backup, guest wifi kept away from your card payments, and a phone that answers function enquiries even mid-service.

Call 1300 049 749 or request a callback · Mon-Fri 9AM-5PM AEST

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