Sudden demand for high speed internet (100/20Mbit/s)

[Vedrana14]

Hello to the Airbnb community!

For the last two weeks we have noticed a lot of inquiries regarding internet speed. The guests specifically demanded internet speed of at least 100/20 Mbit/s. That is the first and only question when they message us, which is a little strange. Two of the guests had bad reviews from other hosts (nothing specific), while the rest of them didn't have any reviews. We are worried there is something behind this. Maybe someone figured out a way to use internet for suspicious or illegal activities?

Did you have any experiences or situations like this?

We would love to hear your opinion on this!

Thank you!

[M199]

@Vedrana14 

Sounds to me there are red flags.  I would be extremely cautious.

[Vedrana14]

That's why we wanted to check if anyone had similar experience. We will, thank you.

[Sarah977]

@Vedrana14  I don't necessarily sense it as something nefarious, just digital nomads to whom this is the most important thing. And who have zero idea how to communicate nicely. It's all about them.

Of course you shouldn't accept guests with bad reviews. As for the newbies, you could try communuicating with them, trying to get more informative replies, but if they continue in the same vein, ignore them.

And I imagine the digital nomads send these out by the dozens to lots of hosts.

[Vedrana14]

@Sarah977 

Thank you for your prompt reply.

We hope that is the real situation. It's just this happened several times in a week, and it sounds too specific to be a coincidence. I didn't mention that two of them gave up because there is no LAN cable since the router is not in the apartment. Some asked us to guarantee the speed and do the test online. We generally had great experience with newbies so that was not a problem. Everybody has their first trip on Airbnb :). They usually say they need it for their job, any further questions would maybe be too much. 

[Sarah977]

@Vedrana14  Yeah, you don't want to go down the path of "guaranteeing" a certain internet speed.

You know, there are online blogs where guests read advice like this. "Send out inquiries to up to 40 hosts, asking them to guarantee the internet speed, if you rely on it for work". Online stuff can go viral real quick, with a million people a day reading it, so that might account for the rash of similar inquiries.

[Helen3]

As you know you can't guarantee the speed - maybe take a photo of your internet speed and upload to your listing but confirm that speeds can never be guaranteed as this is outside of your control @Vedrana14 

[Dale711]

@Vedrana14 

 I agree with you,

                             “ We are worried there is something behind this. Maybe someone figured out a way to use internet for suspicious or illegal activities?” 

Its common view that the Internet speed has had a major impact upon criminality.

Internet throttling is when the ISP intentionally limits the internet bandwidth or speed. ISPs can throttle internet connections when someone  is participating in illegal online activities.

As a matter of fact,  no doubt a good internet speed is at or above 25 Mbps. ... Fast internet speeds, those in the 100+ Mbps range, are often better, especially if you want your internet  plan to support multiple devices and users at once.

internet download speeds of 100 Mbps or higher are often considered fast internet because they can handle multiple online activities for multiple users at once without major interruptions in service.

[Lorna170]

@Vedrana14   It is my opinion that most of these inquiries are because AirBnB has asked us to put in what our internet speeds are, and that was probably due to the number of people who are working from "home" and require decent internet.  I do not attribute anything nefarious to the internet inquiries. I have had more inquiries about my internet speed since I had to enter a number on the listing page, and I have since entered a minimum guaranteed speed rather than the best speed I can get.  That lower speed number has not impacted the number of bookings I get but has reduced the number of inquiries that never book.

[Erica1358]

I know this post is a few years ago but why wouldn't you be providing fast internet?? We provide 800mbps and unlimited download as some of our guests have kids who love gaming.  I would be grumpy too as 100mbps is pretty slow (and very cheap!).

[Helen427]

@Erica1358 

There's all manner of reasons why the internet speeds vary, including accessibility and Geography.

I'm sure there's pockets of Australia where they too don't so much as have access to the internet as is the case in other countries, including in New Zealand.

Nothing beats good old traditional Bush Telegraph for face to face communications.

It's also nice to take time out and enjoy the countryside away from the internet.