Is your listing equipped with WiFi?

[Jenny]

Hi everyone!

The internet has become almost indispensable these days. Whether it's finding the address of a good local restaurant, organising an outing, finding answers to questions or just scrolling through social networks, the internet has many uses and is a significant help for many people.

There are people who sometimes prefer to go on holiday far from the hustle and bustle of the city and "disconnect" for a weekend to enjoy some peace and quiet.

As a result, some accommodations do not necessarily need a Wi-Fi connection, and others may not even have the choice of one due to their location!

Do you offer Wi-Fi in your accommodation? Why did you make this decision?

Take care,

Jenny

[Lorna170]

@Jenny   We offer WiFi as a necessity -  most of our guests still want to be connected while on vacation and having access to the internet allows them to explore online to see what is in the area to visit or the hours of a local restaurant that we have recommended.  It is somewhat costly at 200+ dollars a month, but this is for bundled services of internet, cable TV and phone.  Without internet service, 911 (emergency) phone service is unavailable as is TV, even local channels.  We have only one service provider locally, so they (over)charge accordingly.

[Lindie6]

@Jenny 

Interesting question. Our listing is in a touristic rural town and in the past, we used to give guests a small data package with the possibility to top up (only one or two asked for extra).

Covid brought people who wanted to attend meetings (even during holidays) and we installed an uncapped 4G supply. It's not the fastest and unfortunately goes down when we have a power outage (which has become a regular occurrence), but when it works, it's ok (two people can use videoconferencing simultaneously and it allows TV streaming).

Fiber was recently installed in the area, but it seems like the contractors did not put the lines in deep enough, so they are often broken/chopped up due to municipal digging. For now, we have to grin and bear it, until fiber is a viable option (not-the-fastest service is better than no service). 

We warn guests beforehand and encourage them to enjoy the natural beauty of the area instead.

TIA (This Is Africa)

Lindie

[Debra300]

@Jenny,

We offer wifi because I have been working remotely for the past 10 years, and we offer only streaming services on our TVs, no cable.  Whether at our place in Atlanta or in St. Lucia, the internet speed fluctuates so I don't advertise a speed, and both locations experience service interruptions, especially during inclement weather.  In the US, we signed up with Tmobile's 5g Home Internet service as a backup for the Xfinity service.  They are the only two available ISPs in our neighborhood.  In St. Lucia, we have only one ISP in the area, but another company is trying to expand fiber optic service.  We will not sign up for a backup service because none of the ISPs have their own generators so everyone is affected if there is an internet or power outage.

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Debra300 @Jenny 

Yes! I've been working remotely for almost 50 years and having these connections really has made my work quicker and more efficient. Whew!~ 

Our ISP has both solar and generator backup, so we are among the fortunate. When other towers went down in the fires here, folks came up here to use our connection. We were delighted to be of service. 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

We offer wi-fi on a separate network from what we use in the house. Even though we are an off grid/unplug destination our guests definitely use it a lot!

[Jenny]

I can't imagine staying at your accommodation and sitting on the internet!  Although I imagine there's lots of great photo opportunities to be uploaded to social media!

How's the service where you are?  Is it quite fast, or a little slow?  Where I stay has always been a bit behind in terms of a fast service, and some of my favourite areas are where there's a signal blackout!

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

Hi @Jenny 

A lot of our guests are super tech oriented and much younger - thus digital natives. They are going to be connected, of course, and it could feel really odd for them to not be. I do know they are all sharing photos and such, which is total fun. I confess, I spend an enormous amount of time on line, but that is my work, my volunteer work, and my voracious reading habits! Our digital tools are so amazing, and I so well remember when we did not have them. 

Good question about speed and reliability. We get our internet signal from a remote mountain top tower, about 10 miles line of sight from us, across the valley and at about eye level for our dish receiver. We have broad band and pay a lot for it. We're really lucky that we have internet at all, and especially of the quality we do have. We've the best service anywhere in this part of the county, a region where so many people have none at all. There are also lots of places where cell service cuts out on the highway and most roads,  blocked by a mountain, cliff, in a river canyon, or a forest. We call it "the tower is behind a rock."  Indeed - there are shops in town where there is no service inside - likely how the buildings were constructed. 

Signal blockout is not actually a negative - I say it allows us to pay closer attention to what is around us!

Kitty

[Martin3344]

@Jenny

I think it's really essential to provide wifi for guests these days. Fortunately in Edinburgh the connection and speed are very good, but I know that guests sometimes struggle in the countryside accommodations in Scotland where services can be patchy. It's often given to me as an excuse as to why they don't respond to my messages while they are travelling around 🙂 The main challenge in the city centre is being pretty well tied to a single service provider who has an appalling track record of customer service. This is due to the very strict planning regulations in the Old Town and the New Town. You probably know which one I am talking about !

[Sudsrung0]

@Jenny 

It's a deal breaker here must have, although they have in the project we installed our own in the apartment, and it's good recently the internet company installed a TV box for Free,

Thailand was voted the 3rd best country for internet, 

[Jenny]

That's awesome!  Given the great service, do you find the internet in Thailand expensive or is it good value?

Here in Scotland it's not too bad, but many of our areas in the countryside aren't great for service, the town where I stay doesn't have all the fast speeds that cities do.

[Sudsrung0]

@Jenny 

It work out about 25 pound per month it's not the best package but not the cheapest, only one guest complained in his review and there was a problem with it, had he have told me I could have got it fixed, 

I will say this they give a good service if you have to call them they answer usually same day, Fixed

[Till-and-Jutta0]

We offer a private room in our shared apartment. When we started Airbnb back in 2010 we had no Wi-Fi, as our computers had been connected with the Internet by Ethernet cable.

Smartphones just started to get popular those days – but how to connect a guest’s smartphone with the Ethernet? No way.

That was the right time to install Wi-Fi in our apartment. At the beginning, our guests used our private one. Until one fine day a warning letter from a law firm arrived, asking 950 € (about 950 USD) because our guest used the internet for illegal activities (copyright violation by uploading movies to a streaming platform).

So we learned, and today we have a separate (warning proof) Wi-Fi for our guests with a stable 30 Mbit connection. They are happy – and we are!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Jenny Our apartments are only about 3km from the nearest city and yet we could only get 3Mb/s broadband and even then we had to change lines every time someone else in the village caused BT to move us from copper to aluminium ( I know far more about the history of telephone lines than I really want to).

Amazingly our village (about 30 houses spread over 5sq miles then got fibre to the premises so we now get whatever speed we choose to pay for. Our 100mb supply seems fine although we advertise it as 50mb in case it ever slows down.

[Tanya541]

We offer free Wi-Fi with our Airbnb with two different speeds So at least one of them will work for our traveling guests. We are located in a major city so can’t imagine not having the service . Our door lock is even hooked up to the Wi-Fi.