Travel down any road in the US and you’ll see plenty of signs advertising FREE Wi-Fi. Hotels that used to advertise “Free Breakfast”, or “Kids stay Free”, now try to draw business with Free Wi-Fi. It’s a rare coffee shop that doesn’t offer free Wi-Fi anymore. So, why is it that so many RV parks today charge from $2 – $10/day?
From my point of view, it’s because Wi-Fi coverage in an RV park is a *lot* more difficult than at an indoor location. We used to do work for a company who installed Wi-Fi in RV parks nationwide – we know the challenges. You can’t just install one big antenna to cover the park because the guests’ computers don’t have the power to communicate back … it is 2-way radio y’know. At one large RV park in Arizona (Palm Creek with 2,000 sites) there are over 40 access points! And, that means 40 times the maintenance and support issues too – not just the initial installation.
We’re currently staying at our favorite park in Florida … Thousand Trails Peace River. They provide free Wi-Fi, but only up at the clubhouse. I think that’s just fine. If you want to check your email, there is a free way to do so. If you want to get Internet access from the comfort of your RV, you should be willing to pay for it. Either by having your own Internet Satellite dish, or a data service from your cellular provider, or a paid Wi-Fi service.
Last month, we stayed at Thousand Trails in Orlando. They still provide free Wi-Fi at the clubhouse and, to cover the rest of the park (850 sites), they contract with Tengo Internet. If I owned an RV park, that’s how I’d do it – provide a simple, free hotspot just at the clubhouse, and use a professional provider (with 24/7 phone support) for the rest. One manager we spoke to at Thousand Trails indicated that this decision has virtually eliminated the myriad of support headaches they had when they tried to do it all themselves.
We were there for 4 days, and we signed up for the $14.95/week account. I thought it was well worth it.
How about you?
Chris Guld
www.GeeksonTour.com