More people are working from home and need to be able to work from anywhere. Combine this with our constant need to be online and a love of netflix and social media, a fast and reliable internet connection is vital and could be a deal breaker for some when they book a holiday. So what to do if your wifi is not up to scratch?
The easiest way is to connect your phone to the wifi, open fast.com in a browser on your phone, iPad or laptop. Then walk around the property measuring the speed. Anything regularly under 20Mbps is a cause for concern.
What can be done if you have a poor internet connection? First you need to establish if the slow connection is just you or the surrounding area. To test for speeds arriving at your property, connect your computer to the wifi router via a cable and test the speeds on a browser running fast.com. If you do discover that your internet arrives at the property slow, then you can do one of 2 things. You need to establish that it’s not just your property (the connection from the supply to your house) – it could be poor in your area.
Chat to neighbours, or do a speed test online using your post code, or call up your supplier. If it’s just your connection to the house, consider asking a telephone engineer to look at the connection.
If it’s your area at fault, check out other providers using speedtest.net.
If there are no better broadband options you might have to look for something completely new.
How to improve your broadband speeds within your BnB:
There’s plenty of helpful advice online including, placing your router, WiFi boosters, wired connections and better, faster routers (but this may cost more). General rule with most tech = the more you pay the faster and easier it is to use.
BT offer an excellent service called BT Complete. They guarantee reliable wifi in every room. I finally installed this at my house when the complaints from my teenage daughter got too much. I can say it is excellent and lives up to the promise.
Improve your broadband service when there are no broadband providers in your area… Starlink:
Starlink is the satellite based internet connect from Elon Musks SpaceX to deliver broadband speeds anywhere. Check out the map on their website to see the speeds you can get. Costs of satellite broadband up until now were very high but have come right down – £89 per month with a setup fee of around £600.
At present Starlink has over 2,100 LEOs in orbit and their initial plan is to deploy a total of 4,425 by 2024. But for that you can expect unlimited usage, fast latency times of 20-40ms, downloads of c. 50-250Mbps and uploads of c.10-20Mbps (speeds may change as the network grows).
Starlink map can be found at www.luxurybnbmag.com/starlink 5G – the new mobile platform:
It’s worth checking to see if 5G is available in your area. Go to: www.luxurybnbmag.com/5g.
In my experience, you need to be able to see the mast to get broadband speeds – but when it works, the speed and reliability is fantastic. This will improve with an increased coverage but also decrease with more people using it. With the mobile companies investing so much money in 5G it is only a matter of time that this technology will be widely available.
Reliable mobile phone service:
People also want fast and reliable mobile phone signals – and this is where mobile phone boosters come in. Factors effecting mobile signals are similar to those effecting your in-house wifi – foil backed insulation, thick walls and metal girders. A mobile signal booster from mobile signal solutions will guarantee to improve your mobile signal, allowing your guests to be connected at all times.
Please contact Mobile Signal Solutions to discuss boosting your mobile signal at your bnb.
