To Pay Or Not To Pay For RV Park WiFi
11-23-2017
Author: in Henley's Happy Trails
Those days are now quickly becoming a thing of the past. With a few hundred dollars and a tech savvy employee, a park can get WiFi to their customers which is why many RV parks are just adding WiFi as a free service. Though this is the trend, there are still those parks that go against the grain and charge for their WiFi. Before we got our unlimited data plan from our wireless carrier, we exclusively used park WiFi, be it paid or not. We discovered a few things about paying for WiFi.
A higher cost does not always equal a better product.
It can be annoying to discover the extra charge.
That same idea holds true with the internet. Many parks that have paid internet simply advertise that they have WiFi at their park without mentioning the extra fee. It is somewhat surprising then to discover that one must pay for something that appears to come with the rent price. This is one more reason that we as a general rule won’t use a park’s WiFi if it is the paid kind. Just as the pool should be included in a night’s stay so too should the internet, if available.
What can be used instead?
If you don’t have an unlimited, high data plan or don’t have service in your location, you may have to bite the bullet and pay for the park’s WiFi. If the service was great and well worth the charge, let the staff know. If the service was poor and you regret paying for it, tell the staff that as well. WiFi is an important service to many RVers. Customer feedback about RV park services, like WiFi, allows owners/managers to evaluate their current service and upgrade or cancel charges, as needed.
What do you think about paying for park WiFi?
Comment
Levi and Natalie, In an attempt to not be disrespectful the information you provided about using a tech savvy employee to build an outdoor system is extremely inaccurate for Park Wi-Fi. To truly understand outdoor Wi-Fi and they're few that do, would know you get what you pay for in Wi-Fi equipment. Parks are very difficult to service as you mentioned but not impossible with the right company, correct design and using the right type of equipment. Most parks have Entry level access points like Ubiquiti, Unifi, Meraki, Engenius because they're cheap and for a reason. Price sells over quality and these manufactures know it and companies sell it because they lack integrity knowing it doesn't work. Parks can have exceptional Wi-Fi if they were willing to pay for it. They're basically 4 manufactures of Access Points that should be considered for a park deployment which is Ruckus, Cisco, Aruba or Cambium. These are all carrier grade type AP's and while I have no loyalty to any on one of them Ruckus head to head stands alone in outdoor WiFi but the price point is higher, Cambium will provide almost as good of a system for a little lower price point but both come down to knowing how to design a park. You were also accurate that most systems get congested and that is because novices have designed the system, they used the wrong router and didn't use traffic shaping. Traffic Shaping is key so no one user consumes more than their fair share of the pipe. In addition, having enough bandwidth is an issue in most parks because of their locations. DSL or WISP service will make it almost impossible for a park to have a flawless system so when Cable or Fiber is available that should always be first choice. "Price is what you pay Value is what you get" should be considered when deciding to purchase Wi-Fi. You can dress up a Fiat (car) all you like but in the end it can still only seat 2 people. Wi-Fi is the same! People try to dress up these entry level AP's but there is a reason they only cost from $60 to $130 compared to carrier grade AP's at $500-$3000. Don't be fooled by the wow words used to sell these entry level systems. I have designed 100's of parks, 1000's of marinas and can say without a doubt that Excellent WIFI can be achieved with the right company using the right equipment and understanding how the park environment works. I hope that didn't come off as anything but informative for your readers. As for Pay to use systems they're becoming a thing of the past. However those willing to spend the money to put in a carrier grade system still want to recoup some of their costs. 95% of the parks seem to be free to guest but what does that mean if they don't work anyway. Kind of false advertising. I enjoyed your post. Thanks
Author: Levi and Natalie Henley
