Five Star WiFi

These days we expect wi-fi everywhere we go: on a plane, on a train, at the grocery store, while you are getting your oil changed - you name it. Free wi-fi is the bare minimum, akin to hot water and electricity. The new expectation is that the wi-fi is free, fast, and (gasp!) works consistently.

In the past, internet was associated with work, and the thought was: guests are on vacation – who needs internet? However, as we all know times have changed drastically. Wi-fi is required for basically everything we do. Your vacationing guests are searching for restaurants, getting online reservations, looking up tee times, getting an Uber ride, ordering groceries, searching for remedies for a jellyfish sting, getting minute-by-minute weather reports, looking for the nearest urgent care, streaming TV shows, live-streaming baby sea turtles hatching, facetiming with family back home, editing videos, posting to social media, and yes, sometimes even working (see “The Working Vacation” below).

One of the most common reasons for an otherwise perfect unit to receive a less than stellar review is poor wi-fi. It will be noticed, and it will be pointed out in the review. In the mind of your future guest, poor wi-fi is considered a chronic, not episodic issue… as in – it’s an ongoing issue. Think about it: a guest leaves a 3 star review and notes that the dresser handle broke, the neighbors were loud, and icemaker quit working during their stay. While all of that would be understandably inconvenient, most future guests will be able to read the review and discern that the handle has probably been repaired, the neighbors have left, and the icemaker has been fixed. Additionally, as we respond to reviews we point out when issues have been resolved. However, most of the time when a guest notes slow wi-fi in their review, it is indicative of an ongoing issue, not something broken that can be fixed. Instead it is seen as a characteristic of that property that you just have to know going in and decide if you can live with it. And the reality is that some guests will decide that they can’t.