{"id":339,"date":"2012-06-01T15:37:43","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T15:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/?p=339"},"modified":"2022-10-14T11:22:20","modified_gmt":"2022-10-14T11:22:20","slug":"wi-fi-or-not-the-risks-and-benefits-of-offering-broadband-to-guests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wi-fi-or-not-the-risks-and-benefits-of-offering-broadband-to-guests\/","title":{"rendered":"Wi-Fi or Not? The Risks and Benefits of Offering Internet in your Holiday Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It is now taken for granted that guests will be able to access WiFi whilst on holiday. Whilst going away is often about \u2018getting away from it all\u2019, for a lot of guests, watching a box set, surfing their social media feed, or Googling the latest football results is all part of creating some downtime. Kids like to play games and download movies on their tablets and for many people it is important to be able to stay in contact with family and friends. For others, being able to \u2018stay in touch\u2019 with the office could be a deal breaker when finding somewhere to stay. In a nutshell, providing WiFi in your holiday home is no longer a \u2018nice to have\u2019. It is an essential requirement. Without WiFi you will find it harder to get bookings.<\/p>\n

Setting up broadband in your property is easy. All you need is a phone line and a standard broadband package. This should cost less than \u00a320 a month and will include a router. If you only let your house out during the holiday season, providers such as Virgin Media, NOW and Direct Save Telecom offer a temporary 30 day broadband service which might suit you better if you don\u2019t want to be tied into a 12 month contract.<\/p>\n

However, before you sign up to the latest broadband deal, it is important that you are aware of your responsibilities and risks as the WiFi provider and what you can do to mitigate them.<\/p>\n

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Illegal downloads and copyright infringement<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The vast majority of people who connect to the internet whilst on holiday will use your WiFi in a sensible and responsible manner. It is likely that they just want to find the closest supermarket, or respond to a few emails whilst away. However, there is a minority who use public WiFi to illegally download music and films or access inappropriate sites. In 2009 there was a well-publicised case<\/a> where a pub owner was fined \u00a38000 when one of its\u2019 customers was caught illegally downloading copyrighted material. At the time, this case caused a lot of controversy and concern for other people who offered WiFi to their customers or guests.<\/p>\n

Since then the Digital Economy Act 2010<\/a> and the Digital Economy Act 2017<\/a> clearly sets out the law for illegal downloading and criminal copyright infringement. Whilst much of the Digital Economy Act 2010 was never actually passed into law, the Digital Economy Act 2017 places a more strict set of rules on internet subscribers who commit copyright infringements. It is the responsibility of the internet subscriber, which in this case is you, to ensure that the users of the broadband in your property stay within the law.<\/p>\n

Whilst it is impossible to completely prevent illegal or inappropriate use of the internet, there are a few things that you should do to minimise the risk.<\/p>\n

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Passwords<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Firstly, the main issue with the 2009 pub owner case was that the landlord offered unsecure internet access which meant they didn\u2019t know who had downloaded the content. As holiday home owners, we know who is staying in our properties and using our internet. In order to ensure that the WiFi cannot be accessed by anyone else, it is essential that you have a strong password. Ensure that it is complicated enough so it cannot be easily guessed. For example, don\u2019t use the name or address of the property. It is also a good idea to change the password occasionally.<\/p>\n

You should also change the admin password of your router and keep your router locked away to prevent any \u2018curious\u2019 guests fiddling with it.<\/p>\n

Parental controls\/filtering<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Another way to help prevent illegal downloading is to block certain sites. A lot of ISPs (Internet Service Providers), including BT, Talk Talk and Sky amongst many others, include a \u2018parental control\u2019 functionality. This will block certain categories or content for all<\/em> devices connected to your WiFi. For example, you can allow access to social media and video sharing sites such as YouTube, but block other sites that might be inappropriate. This may be something that parents booking a family holiday cottage may actually be looking for to help keep their children safe online.<\/p>\n

Some parental controls can also enable you to look at what guests have filtered during their holiday. If you think you might use this function it is important that you explain this in your booking terms and conditions to ensure you do not breach any GDPR rules.<\/p>\n


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Exceeding download limits<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You will need to be aware of your bandwidth usage limit and ensure that your guests do not exceed it. In reality, holiday makers don\u2019t go away to stay indoors all day watching films. However, the demand for streaming music and films is increasing and if you are not careful this can start to eat into your monthly allowance. To avoid paying fees due to exceeding your monthly limit it is probably worth choosing an \u2018unlimited\u2019 option. Make sure you read the small print though as \u2018unlimited\u2019 often has a \u2018fair use\u2019 policy attached to it.<\/p>\n

It is unlikely that a normal user would break your \u2018fair use\u2019 limit during their holiday. However, it is worth adding a clause in your booking terms and conditions about \u2018acceptable use\u2019 of your broadband connection and the guests\u2019 obligations regarding downloading illegal or copyrighted material. This could include that the internet cannot be used for profit or gambling or illegal activities which may include illegal software and music downloads. This small business blog<\/a> has a WiFi policy as part of a terms and conditions template that you might find useful. It might also be worth recommending that guests have their own virus protection and that their children should be supervised.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting that if you provide devices for your guests to stream music, or DVDs for your guests to watch, you will need to buy music<\/a> and DVD<\/a> licences. You can find out more about music and film licences for your holiday home here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What if I have a poor broadband connection?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

If your holiday home is in a very remote area with non-existent or a very poor broadband connection, a mobile broadband service could be your answer. This is a wireless internet connection that uses a mobile phone network via 3G and 4G. Major mobile phone companies such as Vodafone, EE and O2 offer a mobile broadband service. This can be a cost effective way of enabling your guests to \u2018log on\u2019. However, you should be aware that there are usually data caps and it is unlikely to be able to cope with a whole house full of people trying to connect to the internet.<\/p>\n

If you do not have a good 4G connection then it is worth providing your guests with a list of places, such as local cafes or the library, that offer free public WiFi. Here’s a list of other things that will help your guests get their holiday off to a great start<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Taking a holiday away from the online world<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In todays\u2019 increasingly busy world, where everyone\u2019s phone is always buzzing and beeping, the idea of \u2018digital detox\u2019 holidays are starting to emerge. For some people, a real holiday means switching off from all those WhatsApp groups, constant Facebook notifications and email messages. For the kids to leave their screens at home and to surf some waves rather than social media. An \u2018off-grid\u2019 holiday certainly won\u2019t suit everyone. In fact, you will exclude a huge percentage of people who need or expect to have WiFi whilst on holiday. However, if your property is suitably remote and you are looking for a unique selling point, then escaping the modern world and binning technology altogether could offer you a niche market.<\/p>\n

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For those of you staying \u2018on grid\u2019, it is impossible to be 100% sure that your guests will not use your WiFi connection for illegal activities. However, by taking a few sensible precautions you can help place the liability on the user rather than yourself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is now taken for granted that guests will be able to access WiFi whilst on holiday. Whilst going away is often about \u2018getting away from it all\u2019, for a lot of guests, watching a box set, surfing their social media feed, or Googling the latest football results is all part of creating some downtime. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5237,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[63,4],"tags":[96],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10186,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339\/revisions\/10186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.independentcottages.co.uk\/holiday-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}