Guest WiFi Musts for Would Be Airbnb Superhosts

Airbnb is changing the way people travel, but it is also creating sometimes very lucrative additional incomes for homeowners everywhere, including across Southern California.

As many an experienced Host knows however, it’s the amenities that an Airbnb provides are what makes the guest experience complete and earns you that much coveted Super Host status. And while free coffee and tea, and spa like shampoo sets are nice, there is one amenity that is statistically the most sought after, no matter what the destination.

You guessed it: guest WiFi.

For hosts, guest WiFi is an inexpensive investment which needs very little care or maintenance. For guests, on the other hand, it can be the reason they choose your property over one of your competitors’.

Recently however there have been a number of news stories warning travellers of the dangers of Airbnb WiFi. Therefore, being able to demonstrate that you offer a secure, safe WiFi connection can once gain give you an edge over the competition.

Here is what you can do to ensure cyber security for your Airbnb guests.

Secure Your Network

You don’t need to be a tech expert to secure your WiFi network for incoming guests (although there is no shame in calling one in if you feel more comfortable doing so.)

Here, however are some basics if you want to try it yourself:

Access Your Router Configuration

Before anything else, you will need access to your WiFi router configuration dashboard. To do this, first connect your own device i.e. laptop to the WiFi network using a physical ethernet cable.

Launch your preferred internet browser (we like Google Chrome)

Enter your router’s IP address. It’s likely it will be similar to this: 192.168.0.1

Press enter

A screen will appear asking for the administrator user and password. Input the correct details and hit enter

You’ll now be looking at the configuration dashboard.

Change Router Passwords

One of the easiest, most immediate things you can do to protect guests online is change your router passwords to make it more difficult for others to gain access. Once you’re inside the configuration dashboard, change the password to make it stronger. Use a mix of letters, numbers and symbols, and avoid using common words or personal information.

Change the Network Name

Most routers come with a default name, related to the brand or provider. While changing your preset network name will not necessarily add another level of security for your guests, it will help improve usability and ease when accessing the network. Change the name to something that your guests will easily recognize–such as your vacation rental brand name.

Create an Encrypted Guest Wi-Fi Network

Creating a guest WiFi network will not only limit who can access the internet connection to begin with, but it will also prevent any unauthorized users from entering. This helps to protect guests (and yourself) from hackers or other security risks.

Most routers will allow you to change the keys of the network after every set of guests depart, which will restrict their access so they can’t connect to your WiFi anymore.

You can even go one step further and have the guest WiFi network turn off after a specific time. That way, if you know guests are checking out at 10am, they’ll immediately lose internet access at that time and it may even prompt stragglers to hurry up a little, so that you can send in your cleaning crew to prepare for the next guests.

Connect Smart Devices to the Guest WiFi Network

If you have smart home devices in your vacation rental, connect them to your guest WiFi network instead of your primary network. This helps to reduce the potential damage should one of the devices become compromised in terms of security.

Store Your Router Out of Sight

It only takes one guest to tamper with your router, and they could steal the data of hundreds of other guests and spy on their internet activity. Prevent this from happening by storing away your router in a safe place, out of guest reach. For example, in a locked cupboard or cabinet.

Keep All Firmware Up to Date

It’s important to keep your router up-to-date to maintain the highest levels of security, so be sure to install new firmware whenever it becomes available. Check this by logging into your admin dashboard (the same way as changing the password) to see if new updates are ready to be installed.

Wi-Fi 6 is Coming – But What Does That Mean?

Wi-Fi is on the brink of a major update: 802.11ax, also known as “WiFi 6”. For devices which include the new standard – and its required hardware), this means big improvements–so long as the network it’s connected to supports it.

To understand what Wi-Fi 6 means for you, let’s look back on how we got to what we have now, and then the challenges WiFi 6 is attempting to overcome, and how it has the potential to change everyone’s mobile lifestyle, both personally and professionally.

In the Beginning

Today we take being instantly and almost constantly connected to the Internet for granted. However, some of us remember a time when it was not like that at all (and cringe when we do so.)

In the early days of the Internet – for those who may not remember – if you wanted to get online you’d walk over to the family computer, wait what seemed like an age while it booted up, then dial-up your ISP to get on the internet. After another minute or so of dialing, beeps and boops, squawks and squeals, culminating in a ball of static and a sometimes a friendly voice telling you that “You’ve got mail!”

Dialup was painfully slow (in the range of 57kbps at its peak), and tied up your phone line all the while. So everyone else in the house got mad with you. If you wanted to listen to music, you’d have to download an .MP3 file – which would take at least 10 minutes for an average song.

The next steps along the way were ISDN, T1, T3, and other types of “always on” connections, but their price and limited availability kept them mostly reserved to schools and businesses.

Laptops were becoming increasingly popular, as were “little” pocket-sized devices called Personal Digital Assistants. The downside to both was their need for a wire to connect to anything. Your PDA could send and receive email, but only via a “sync” process when connected to your computer. Your laptop could only access the Internet when plugged in to an Ethernet cable.

Then all of that changed

It was the late 1990’s and a new technology had just been standardized: 802.11a.

No, it wasn’t a memorable name, but it allowed a person with a laptop or even a PDA to pop in a device about the size of a stack of credit cards, and connect to a “wireless network” at work, school, and some high-end libraries. Wi-Fi was born.

Soon after 802.11b arrived and brought with it faster speeds, but the two versions of Wi-Fi weren’t compatible with each other. You would need an 802.11a card for the office, and an 802.11b card at home. The two standards operated on different frequencies and at different speeds. Eventually, manufacturers built cards which could connect to networks on either standard to help with the confusion and with the cost and inconvenience of needing two cards.

Wireless standards progressed with 802.11g, 802.11n, and finally 802.11ac. To complicate things, some versions of Wi-Fi support 2.4GHz while others support 5GHz. Some support both. There was even an update to 802.11a to add part of the 3.7GHz spectrum, if the device supports it. And now Wi-Fi 6 will be here by the end of the year.

What are the Benefits of Wi-Fi 6?

Just like every new phone when compared to the previous generation, the new one is “faster”, “smaller”, “uses less power”/“longer battery life”, etc Wi-Fi 6 promises to be better in all the following ways:

  • Higher data rates
  • Increased capacity
  • Better performance in environments with many connected devices
  • Improved power efficiency

One of the ways that Wi-Fi 6 is really supposed to make a difference is boosting the efficiency of the ‘Internet of Things’. That means home assistant devices like the Amazon Echo and the Google Home.

It is also something that gaming companies are banking on to help them as both Google and Microsoft prepare to launch ambitious streaming only gaming platforms that will need to be powered by some very efficient Wi-Fi. Finally it should also help businesses who offer Wi-Fi to their customers improve that offering.

According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, the non-profit overseer of the Wi-Fi world, Wi-Fi 6 will roll out ‘later in 2019’. That will highly likely be towards the very end of the year but we’ll keep you updated here as we learn more.