Can AirBnB Devise a Wifi Rating System or Verification System?

[Richard103]

My wife and I often travel for pleasure and work.  AirBnB hosts sometimes claim to have "wifi or Internet service" but when we arrive they say "Oh our neighbor has it and you can use it becuase it's not password secured."  All we want is the truth.  Either they have wifi or they don't.  If we need to have Internet access for work or pleasuere we should be able to rely on the descirption provided by the host. 

[Clare0]

@Richard103 What?? The neighbor has it?? I don't think that qualifies as having WIFI.  All I can suggest is that you ask prospective hosts what their WIFI signal strength is and if it is password protected.  That should weed out hosts like this.  Also, I would flag the listing so Airbnb can review and have a talk with this host.  I recommend sending Inquiries to hosts before sending a reservation requests so that you can judge by their answers whether they have WIFI suitable to your needs. 

[Liz33]

Gee , that seems really inappropriate to use the neighbours WIFI . We have unlimited WIFI at my listing , but I still wouldn't be happy about a neighbour and their friends using it .

[Keith0]

I have noticed this behaviour amongst Europeans. Not just Airbnb hosts but people generally say they have wifi cause the shoe repair guy on the corner has it.

Suggestion - put it in your review and in a private note to Airbnb.

Would be cool though, as you suggest, if we had a worldwide wifi rating system.

[Andrée2]

As hosts we have to understand that many travellers need good access. I have even been asked to test the speed of my wifi for a potential guest before he was willing to book jor asked if my network was password protected as their work required it so I see no issue with you requesting that your hosts confirm that the available account is their own "password protected" account.

[Andrea9]

@Richard103 @Keith0

That's incredible, sounds like a flash back into the early 1990s. I wonder where you went to.

It always amuses me when I hear this or that being typical to 'Europeans'  😉

From Italy to Greece to Spain to Portugal to Germany, France, the Netherlands and all of the other 21 countries, we are about as different culturally and otherwise as can be.

There are lots of tech-unsavvy people out there who probably love having their neighbors' free wifi and haven't heard of the unprotected dangers of it.

And I have even encountered very health-concious friends in another country who turn off wifi when they go to bed to avoid the effects of the microwave radiation of the whole RFID issue (but they aren't Airbnb hosts).

Anyway, I digress.

Thanks so much, since this discussion has actually made me add another point to my listing description, namely that of 'password protected'.

And should you ever decide to visit the Netherlands, we're proud to have recently been listed as one of the countries with the quickest internet service speeds.

[Serafina0]

I always ask about the WiFi as a guest, but as a host offering WiFi it can sometimes be tricky. Sometimes a guest's device doesen't connect well with our WiFi for reasons that are obscure to me, and sometimes guests complain about the internet being too slow to stream video over VPN on one device while Skyping on another. Often how well it works depends on where you are in the property.

If a host was offering someone else's signal or public access pay-as-you-go internet, that should be stated up front, and I'd definitely mention it in the review.