Provision of telephone and internet connection?

[DivineMrsM]

We don't currently offer this. Most people travel with their mobiles so the telephone thing doesn't seem to bother them. However, I suspect internet access would be a good thing to offer.

How do you go about charging for this? Do you wait for the bill to come in and charge them after the fact? I'm confused... .

[Alan Knighting]

We don't currently offer this. Most people travel with their mobiles so the telephone thing doesn't seem to bother them.

I don’t offer telephone either. My properties are fully wired out for telephone but it is currently disconnected.

However, I suspect internet access would be a good thing to offer.

I have adopted a compromise solution when it comes to Internet access for my guests. I offer them the facility of using my PC for picking up their e-mails. I make no charge for this but I do not include surfing the Web. Many guests make use of the facility. Once I am on 24/7 ADSL (the installation starts this week) I might change my attitude towards surfing.

Mind you, I don’t even start to understand the mentality of people who can’t be divorced from the Web, TV, DVD’s, VHS tapes, etc. for a week or two while on holiday.

In the same way, I don’t understand why people are constantly texting and have a mobile phone screwed to their ears all the time. They must be very important people with lots of important thing to say. At least they bring their mobile devices with them.

I have, and use, all of these things but it is sometimes nice to get away from it all and enjoy my life for a change.

If I were you, I wouldn’t get too excited. So long as you have identified your target market and you are offering the right product, in the right place, at the right price, through the right medium, you will be OK.

Alan

[paolo]

You can charge after the itemised bill arrives, which is not really very satisfactory.

You can have a meter at the property and take a reading with the guests at the start and end of their rental, and deduct what they have used from their security deposit.

Most of my guests to France come from outside Europe, so their mobile phones are less likely to work. I provide a free phone. It used to be free for local calls, so as to book restaurants, etc. Guests had to go and buy a phone card and work that out or use a phone box to call home.

So I decided to make the phone free for all calls and ask guests to use it sparingly internationally. As a result they just call home and say "We're here, call us back!" Extra expense to me is a few euros a month. Extra selling point for winning bookings - far greater.

Some guests come with laptops because they still have to run their empires. They tend to have a local number they can call to go online. That doesn't cost me much and I don't mind losing a few euros for the rental.

If they do use the internet a lot and it is not a local number, we talk about it beforehand and usually they pay me back when I get the bill. Or they are supposed to. But when I get a bill for 10-15 euros I don't bother charging them, I tell them I am waiving it, and hope that will encourage a return booking.

[Sue Dyer]

The village where my cottage is has just got broadband! We don't have a phone line in either, I had thought of getting one of those pay phones but the line rental seemed an unnecessary expense. As has been said, most folk seem to have access to a mobile these days, most of which you can pick email up on.

One of the pubs there has a free internet machine although if you want to use it at the minute you have to unplug the fibre optic Christmas tree!! Isn't village life wonderful!

[Stephen]

We have telephones at our cottage but only for incoming calls, we ring the guests on the night of their arrival to see if they have any questions etc.. we are also just about to get satellite broadband installed at a cost of £20 per month, as much for our own use as for the guests plus they can access all the local websites etc to see whats going on..

If I had a choice to stay at a cottage/hotel etc with free broadband I certainly would pick the one with the broadband in fact we did so in Paris earlier in the year.

At the end of the day the guests don't have to watch TV or check their email but at least they have the choice.

A lot of villas in Florida now have PCs with free broadband for their guests to use and some even have free unlimited international phone calls....

Stephen

[Christine Kenyon]

We don't provide telephone or internet access and our village has only just got mobile phone reception - literally two weeks ago and only for Vodafone. I know what you mean about village life, Sue . I love it.

We let visitors know in advance what services are available. And most people are delighted that there is no phone and they can really get away from the office - in fact, they could be upset when they find out that we now have some mobile phone reception. The village has a cybercafe and internet access at the Community Development Centre at the school so if people have to pick up emails, etc, the facility is available locally.

Cheers

Christine

[DivineMrsM]

Thanks for your input everyone.

We've only had one or two requests for net access, but my sister has tended to bring in the laptop and let them have a short amount of time just to check and send emails etc. No additional charges.

I think we'll leave it at that for now. The property is too remote for broadband at present .

Most guests' mobiles work fine which ever country they are in so that's pretty useful. That way their bills are their own... .

[debk]

I saw a posting somewhere from a rental owner who provided a ADSL connection at his rental home for his guests, but he didn't provide a computer. Can anyone tell me how this works? Is an ADSL connection so generic that any PC can use it? (Sorry if this is a really stupid question but some past inquirers asked if they could bring/use their own laptop, instead of the one I provide. Our ADSL installation CD is in Portuguese though and I'd like to know how a guest would get their laptop working with my connection.) Would appreciate some tech talk, please!

More general to this topic: Yes, we provide ADSL and a laptop at our rental home and people love it. They even send me emails telling me how much fun they are having (which make nice additions to the online guestbook).

I also bought a cheap cellfone which I provide for guests instead of a fixed phoneline. We record the balance at checkin and again at checkout. The charges have never exceeded €10, and are generally less than €3, so I don't charge the guests... which generates nice goodwill during those last few minutes together at checkout. (I use a cellplan with no monthly charges so this amenity costs me nothing except for the original €60 that I paid for the cellfone in 2003.)

[Hanorah]

I have just bought a cheap laptop off Ebay and will be taking it to Turkey with me on Thursday. I thought it was a bargain at £144 for the spec (see below) which should be adequate for Internet access. Aparantly Turkey is one of the cheapest countries for Internet access so should be a good investment for relatively little money. I think I will not charge extra for the access this year. If I find it costs a lot I can always offer to hire it for a small price next year. As it is a laptop we can remove it from the house when access is not required if this is the case.

Might be worth considering doing something similar you don't currently offer an Internet service.

Toshiba Tecra 8000
Internet Ready
Intel Pentium II 333 MHz
256 Meg Ram
6.5 Gig Hdd
Internal CD drive
External Floppy Drive
56K modem
14.1" TFT screen
Power supply and lead
USB port
Leather Carry case

[vrooje]

Interesting idea... but what's to keep some malicious guest from stealing the laptop? I suppose if you're at the property this is far less likely, and since it wasn't very expensive it wouldn't be a huge loss.

Last season we started ADSL service at our rental, but we didn't tell anyone about it because in involves an installation CD (in French) and other annoyances. This season, if I ever do get over there, I hope to install a wireless router which will not only provide wireless access for people's laptops, but it will also allow them to plug into the router and access the internet without a login and password (which ADSL seems to require).

I'll update again when this has actually happened!

We also provide a phone only for local calls; but I like Paolo's idea, actually! I'm not sure, though, that my parents will be trusting enough to go with it. What we might do in the interim is provide a phone card for the house, and see how long it takes for it to get used up.

[Hanorah]

For the phone access we do provide a telephone with local calls outgoing and international calls incoming free of charge.

There is a service called telestunt.co.uk that allows us or the guests family or friends to phone for 7p a minute to Turkey. France is only 2p a minute. All you have to do is call their number first so no software or changing providers etc and you get really cheap international calls nearly every where in the world. Turkey is one of the more expensive ones.

This way we can also sort out any problems or answer any questions at any time. We get the guests to text us saying call us now and we call them at the villa. The call does not cost us much and they only pay the price of a text.

With internet broadband though you can actually make and receive totally free international and local calls. You need some software to set it all up and a speaker but I have a friend at work who uses it to call his family in India for free.

There is no broadband where we are but it might be an option for those who have it. If anyone is interested let me know and I will find out the website address for you.

[Clexane]

I just had this challenge with one of my guests. Internet access was critical. So I got busy trying to find options. Here is what I found.

If you go with Wanadoo they will ask for a twelve month membership plus install costs. Though if you look around there are others that provide just on a month by month basis - neuf is one if I recall well.

Our guest had a local dialup number but that was going to cost 1.32 Euro an hour. I rang France Telecom and they said they can give you over the phone a transaction value over a given period which ultimately was the solution.

I am with Paolo .. probably wont charge if its around 10 Euro ... but if it gets to the 50 Euro + range I will be charging.

I also keep a Laptop which I can hire out if a guest needs it - a relic from an old job but does the business.

[Ju]

We have a phone in one of our properties for the first time this year. To start with we are going to go with local calls only and provide a 5€ phone card, with the option to buy more if wanted. We will review at the end of the season and see how it goes.

For now we don't provide internet access, but have had guests use our own connection. We are due to go broadband in the autumn and are thinking of putting it in then. I was thinking of a standard PC in one of the Ikea type cupboards that hide it all away. That way people can pretend it's not there if they want.

Ju

[alexia s.]

We have always provided a phone without limitations on use (guests know that international calls will be charged for). The most anyone has ever used is 10 euros. In France there is a free service called "allofact" which lets you know exactly what the cost has been in any period (i.e. any day, any duration - 2/3 to 5/4 e.g. - with a breakdown for any day/s you need to know more about). You can know what the cost of calls has been before the guest even leaves.
Guests needing access to the web just come with their own computers & the number they need to dial in France- this has been provided by their own server in their own country.

[vrooje]

Alexia,

That's very useful! Do you happen to have any more details on allofact? Is it accessible via the web and/or the phone?

Thanks!