WiFi for holiday cottages

Some guests prefer to get away from it all, zone out of reception and take a break from modern life. It is meant to be a holiday after all. But there’s no escaping the fact that we are glued to our devices. We’re constantly wandering in and out of hotspots and using up our bandwidth.

For a lot of guests having wifi in the holiday home they are going to is a major factor in the decision making. It could be for work, streaming movies, social media or just trying to find something to do while they are away.

So what is the difference between superfast and standard broadband? Superfast is when there is an unlimited, high speed broadband connection that can cope with anything from emails to the smart TV – you can stream a movie with no buffering. Standard is anything that doesn’t fall into Superfast – basically for emails and browsing, drops out occasionally or is run from a router next door.

Here are a few frequently asked questions about providing wifi in your holiday let.

Is it viable?

The speed and reliability of a broadband connection depends largely on the distance of your property from the nearest telephone exchange. To get an (optimistic) estimate of the broadband speed you can expect at the property you can enter the phone number on the BT website or use a broadband speed checker if you’re already up and running. If your speeds are significantly less than that specified in your package, it may be worth considering alternatives.

Can I just give them access to our wifi? 

If you have an existing wireless broadband connection at home and your holiday property is close by, it may be possible to share a network with your guests. However, even if the holiday property is within range of your existing wireless signal, it may be weak or unreliable for guests to use this way so consider installing an additional wireless access point in the property. This will not only boost the wireless signal, but also gives the guests cable access to the internet should there be any compatibility issues with their wireless devices. Note that unless additional technology is used (isolated LANs or firewalls) this approach does have privacy and security implications for all computers that connect to the network.

What are the legal implications of providing an internet connection for guests?

There is a risk that the internet connection you provide for guests could be used in a way that contravenes your service agreement with your ISP or could even be used to commit a criminal offence. It is also a possibility that a guest’s computer could be damaged by their own use of the internet whilst connected to the service you provide. For these reasons it is important to have agreed terms and conditions with your guest. One approach to this is to pass on the terms and conditions as laid down by your Internet Service provider (ISP) on the same document you use to inform the user of the procedure they need to take to connect to your network, including any network passwords. You should also point out to the guest that you have no liability in any role other than network provision and advise that they take steps to ensure their own safety on-line.

We recommend you also give your guests a list of nearby hotspots, such as cafes that offer free public wifi, in you holiday let information folder.

If you wanted, here are a couple of templates you can add to your information pack regarding the wifi in your holiday let.

Standard broadband template

Superfast broadband template