Internet problems

My guests just contacted me that they have no internet. I replied that I will go check the issue tomorrow. My concern is if it turns out to be an issue from the internet provider it might take a week for their technical people to come over and sort it. This means my guest will have no internet for the entire stay. It would be totally beyond my control. What would you do in such a case?

Can you call your provider and maybe talk your guests through a troubleshooting? Has this happened before? Who is your provider?
We are onsite hosts and I can’t tell you how many times they can’t seem to log into our wifi. I take their device, select the wifi and put in the password and voila! Everything works. They look at me as if I cured cancer :joy:

4 Likes

As internet access is so important to so many; I would offer to waive my cancellation policy in favor of giving them a 100% refund for any unused days on their reservation if they wish to cancel. I would also refund them a small amount for any days they are there without internet access.

To all posters asking for assistance; it would be really helpful if you would say where in the world your listing is located. Standards vary by culture so if we don’t know where you’re hosting the only answer we can give you is the standard for our location.

4 Likes

I would have to do this as well!

The one time my internet was out part of the day I gave a partial refund for that day.

Have they not had Internet at all since they checked in or has it stopped at some point later on? If former, maybe they haven’t connected properly - it’s so easy for them to blame the host or the setup for this.

If it’s a genuine outage that’s likely to take days, based on the situation such as how far you are from the guest accommodation, whether they are overseas guests with no access to Internet otherwise, you could either:

a) Give them a sim card with Internet access
b) Set up a Wifi Hotspot on your simcard and handset and place that in the room or within range for them to use.

But perhaps the easier way out is to simply offer a refund like others have said.

If possible try to feel out how big of an issue it is to them. For some guests it may be crucial to have internet, maybe an other maybe a mild problem. Would impact how I responded with concessions/refunds.

I certainly would not jump right in and offer days worth of refunds until you determine just what the problem actually is. I’m in hurricane ravaged southwest Florida, and power/internet are somewhat flaky all over, as is cable TV. We have guess arriving Sunday and I will just say “pardon the mess, but our cable TV is SNAFU, but the Internet is OK for now…”

I would jump right in and offer use of the spare mobile wifi router that we have. (I actually have one that I use for business trips around the country)
PS we are in Japan

I would try to determine the cause of the problem and if it’s the internet provider’s problem, try to solve it asap and check how guests feel about it. This summer our internet was down for the first time, for 3 days (!!!) as there was heavy thunderstorm in the area and I didn’t even have time to unplug my router when it hit. I was ready to get mobile router or to partially refund, but my lovely guests staying at a time were so unconcerned that they ended up convincing me it wasn’t necessary! :smiley: They said they were out and about the whole day, came here to relax and do not care about internet that much. Plus they have internet on their phone to check stuff if they need to. I really dodged a bullet that time. :slight_smile:

I’ve just had my internet go out (1st time ever and totally provider issue). I’ve refunded the guests who just arrived today 50% of today as it should be back up tomorrow (night though). I also gave them a bottle of nice wine. They just arrived 2 hours ago so it’s not a great start arrrgh. I didn’t ask, just did it as I figured if they complained Air could let them cancel so best I get in first and avoid a complaint. I will be seeking full reimbursement from my internet provider and will get it. Pain though.

What did you end up doing?

This is why I don’t offer wifi. I have it, but due to geography, hills,trees etc, if is satellite, slow and subject to being off during bad weather. I did allow one set of guests to use it as a favour, they complained! Mind you they left a passive aggressive review.
If people ask, I say, it’s not on my listing consider it a bonus, it’s very slow and may fail.

I went personally at the property to test the connection. Basically it was
just a small issue that was fixed by resetting the router. It wasn’t such a
big deal for the guests so I just gave them a bottle of wine which I’m sure
they appreciated as it was empty when I went to clean a few days later.
They left a very nice 5 star review :).

2 Likes