Broadband: does it bring in bookings?

[Gillyann]

Can I just add here something which may be of help?

Recently hubby and I went to Canada, to Vancouver, for a week where we rented a house through a holiday rentals website, then Canmore in the Rockies, and finally Montreal.

In each place we checked first to make sure there was WiFi or an internet connection as we were away for over 3 weeks and needed to keep in touch with business, pregnant daughter, our website, and all sorts of people. I spent around 30 mins a day on my laptop - which was enough, but took the stress of having to look and pay for internet cafes - out of the equation .

We are hoping to buy in France within the next 8 -18 months, and will definately offer Wifi in whatever we rent out. In this modern world it does make sense.

Also, bearing in mind recent events, taking a laptop is now quite fraught with possible theft thereon I am not sure if you still have to put it in the hold, but, I do know that as always one has to take it out of its case etc., to go through the Xrays security. So would it not be wiser to offer a desktop wifi in a property - provided the expense is reasonable - for example, Ebay offers good prices?

So my answer is, YES - wifi/internet connection is essential for us when we travel - long haul especially.

Cheers

Gilly

[vrooje]

Thank you for that information!

Our friend who has an apartment in Paris keeps an old, inexpensive Mac there for people to use. As far as I know, he wipes the HD periodically, but doesn't otherwise police it. I have thought of doing something like that... we will see how the airport security rules turn out.

[debk]

he wipes the HD periodically

Me, too. Easy to do while waiting for a delivery or repairs. (I actually brought one of the laptops home this week and did it while reading with my son.)

Amazing how much faster they boot afterwards. And the desktop looks so darn tidy with just the "Click to connect to internet", Firefox and Skype icons!
debk

[Ciapolin]

We have been doing a bt of researh recently - we can't get broadband, and aren't likely to be able to for a long time. Phone lines and calls are hideously expensive in Italy so we always have an eye on how long we have been on line.

We have now found that both Vodaphone and Tim are much less expensive - we are in the process of organising a network card which will give us around 250mg as opposed to our usual dial up and at a cost of only €30 per month. We have guests staying at the moment who are using it and it's been a eye opener.

[Clexane]

Not having broadband has cost us two bookings this year. One of them is a lost week as it has not been rebooked as of yet and its in October so a valuable week to have lost.

While only one week would pay the costs for a year - its the difficulty of getting it organised that has held us up particularily that we are remote and our housekeepers wouldn't know a keyboard if they saw one. I am also very concerned, as are others on the forum, about keeping it going should it stall or have hickups.

However it is clear to us that we need to get connected and have decided for next years season that we will definitely offer a high speed broadband service at the villa. There are even some deals that throw in free ineternational calls (which I think is hugely valuable) as part of a double or triple play with digital TV - so the investigation begins.

We will probably opt for an always on system so that once set-up it should thoretically keep going - or a quick switch off and on should resolve most issues. We are also desperately seeking a tech savvy teenager in the area to enlist as our IT rescue team

Anyway our decision is made and onto high speed broadband we will go ...

[Orion]

Hi Alan

Your set-up sounds perfect for us. I let one of my clients load the cegetel software to get the wifi up and running for him but he still had to use my flash modem to get it running. Prior to that he could detect my ADSL modem but could not get any further using the standard Windows package.

Who do you use for ADSL and can I set it up easiy to allow access by any future clients?

Thanks in advance

[Alan Knighting]

Bill,

I use France Telecom for my ADSL and my wireless network is Netgear. The accompanying netword management software makes it easy to control the network, allowing temporary users and what they have access to. Basically, if a visitor can detect my network is easy to permit their use of it.

Alan

[Hells Bells]

OK guys, next question, has anyone used the english speaking FT helpline to set up their phone account? We need everything sorted for our visit there at the end of October. I am still considering the broadband option, as it will be useful if we are there over Christmas and New Year, especially the skype, and being able to process last minute bookings-if it snows there will be loads of enquiries, and I don't want to miss them. Cost is the main issue though, I will need to factor it in to my rental charges I suppose.

[Martha]

I have - I guess you have the number?
003 31 55 78 60 56

I got our phone line switched on from the UK with them and am about to arrange broadband, which they said they could also do. It is VERY hard to get through but persevere. There are extremely helpful and pleasant, but there's only three or four of them there so it can take a while. I copied these tips from another site (completefrance, I think?) and my experience seemed to confirm these:

“From my call centre experience, Mondays are usually the worst day (people think about things over the weekend), don’t ring on the hour (often people call on the hour for some reason), ring just before. Don’t ring lunch-times, less staff will be on. I think they are open until about 8pm’ish, I would try either as late as possible or a second or two after they open. �

[Alan Knighting]

Helen,

The answer to that one is "No".

My local PC centre is owned and run by an Englishman. He is an agent for France Telecom, Wanadoo and Orange and sells Netgear equipment. He arranged for the whole transition from ISDN to ADSL and the installation and set-up of the wireless network. Any subsequent problems have been dealt with as an after sales service.

OK. It did involve paying him a fee but my “one-stop shopping� approach meant that he met my requirements and guaranteed it all worked from the very beginning. No gang of individual suppliers; all blaming the others for any problems.

Having gone from dial-up to ISDN to ADSL there is no question in my mind. If one uses e-mail and the internet a lot ADSL is by far the best option, in respect of speed and cost.

Alan

[Hells Bells]

I think I may contact my friend in the village, and see what I can sort out through her. I can do the techie stuff myself no problem, I've already done it for our own house, and bought all the equipment for it, It'd just the ordering of the line and broadband I need.

[Alan Knighting]

Helen,

It'd just the ordering of the line and broadband I need.

If that's all you need I think I can reassure you. One of my "long term" guests wanted broadband. He doesn't speak French but he had no problems whatever in arranging for an old telephone line to be reconnected and in getting broadband installed.

He did it all with one visit to the local office of France Telecom. FT checked the line, allocated a new telephone number and visited the cottage to complete the installation – all within two days.

Alan

[Overboard]

We're having Broadband installed this month for the Edinburgh property as we've already had an internet connection enquiry. People just don't seem to want to travel without their laptops these days and offering 'dial up' doesn't seem to please! Plus I feel with all the rental competition in this city this one additional 'luxury' may help with bookings.