How it works
Live the day the box lands.
Buying guest WiFi in the UK usually starts with a survey and a quote. This starts with a form. You tell us about the venue, we configure and test your router here with your branding already on the login page, and it arrives ready. Plug it in and you are running.
No survey fee. No installation charge. Packages from £39 per venue per month, and no VAT is added.
Start to finish
Four steps, and three of them are ours.
The only part that happens at your venue takes about two minutes and needs one cable and one plug.
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Tell us about the venue
A short form, and we can build from it.
What sort of place it is, roughly how big, where the broadband router sits, and what you want guests to see when they connect. That is enough for us to build it. If we need anything else, we ask by email or WhatsApp.
- Takes a few minutes to fill in
- Send us a logo and your colours if you have them
- Anything else we need, we ask by email or WhatsApp
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We build and test your router
Configured with your branding before it is boxed.
Your guest network, your access rules, your time and bandwidth limits and your branded login page are all set up and tested on the actual router before it leaves us. Nothing is left to be worked out on your premises, because by the time the box is sealed the whole thing has already run.
- Your logo, colours and wording on the login page
- Guest network separated from the network your business runs on
- Tested working, then boxed
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It arrives ready
A spare network port and a power socket.
Your router is dispatched from within the United Kingdom on a UK courier, so it turns up like any other UK parcel and there is nothing to pay the driver. Plug it into a spare port on your existing broadband router and into a plug socket. Your branded login page comes up on a phone within a minute or two. There is nothing to rip out and nothing to reconfigure — your broadband, your till and your card terminal carry on exactly as they are.
- Sent from within the UK, on a UK courier
- Nothing to pay on delivery — no customs charge, no duty, no import VAT
- One network cable, one power lead
- Works alongside the broadband router you already have
- The venue is live the day the box lands
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You are live, and we look after it
Changes and support are handled for you.
From then on the router reports in to us continuously. Change the wording on the login page, tighten a time limit, add a voucher tier, block a device that is spoiling it for everyone — you ask, we do it, usually the same day. It is all done from our side, so the venue carries on serving.
- Portal wording and branding changes on request
- Access rules, time limits and bandwidth caps adjusted for you
- Support Monday to Friday, 06:00–15:00 GMT (07:00–16:00 BST)
What you need at the venue
Three things, and you probably already have all three.
We run on your existing broadband: all we need is a spare network port, a power socket and a spot with good signal to guests. Broadband and line charges are not included.
- Broadband at the venue Whatever you already run — fibre, FTTC or a business line. It stays on your own account with your own provider, and we do not touch it.
- A spare network port One free LAN port on your broadband router. That is where our router plugs in.
- A power socket, somewhere sensible Ideally central and out of a cupboard, so the signal reaches the tables and the rooms your guests actually sit in.
What this normally costs in the UK
The bill before the first month's bill.
Most UK guest-WiFi buyers pay for a survey and an installation before the service has started. These are the suppliers' own published figures, checked on 17 September 2026.
| One-off charge | What UK suppliers publish | With Hotwireless |
|---|---|---|
| Site survey | Genmar IT publishes predictive surveys from £500 and onsite surveys from £1,000, its standard day rate. Haptic Networks publishes predictive surveys for a small office from £750. Click Telecom, which sells pub WiFi, offers its survey free as part of the quote. Genmar IT — WiFi site survey (2026) Haptic Networks — WiFi surveys and assessments (2026) Click Telecom — Pub WiFi (2026) | Nothing. There is no survey. |
| Hardware and installation | Click Telecom publishes £500 to £2,500 for pub WiFi hardware and installation, depending on the size of the venue. Click Telecom — Pub WiFi (2026) | Included on a 12-month plan, or £149 one-off on rolling monthly. No installation charge, and nothing to pay on delivery. |
| Waiting for an installation slot | Click Telecom describes a typical pub installation as taking two to three days. Click Telecom — Pub WiFi (2026) | The work is done before the box is sealed, and it is dispatched from within the UK on a UK courier, so the venue plugs it in the day it arrives. |
Every figure above is the supplier’s own published price, seen on 17 September 2026 and linked in the table so you can check it. Figures are quoted as published; none of the three states whether VAT is included.
We are not the only supplier that ships a unit you plug in yourself — it is the normal way to buy guest WiFi at this end of the UK market. What differs is what arrives: a managed router that we configure, watch and change for you, rather than a portal box you bolt onto hardware you had to buy and set up.
If it does not work
You should not be the one who notices first.
The router reports in to us continuously, so a problem usually reaches us before it reaches your bar staff.
We see it from our side
If the router stops reporting, or the login page stops behaving, it shows up on our side. Most of what goes wrong is configuration, and configuration is ours to fix — usually before anybody at the venue has picked up the phone.
A replacement is posted out
If the hardware itself has failed, a replacement goes out from within the UK, set up exactly like the one you have. You unplug two cables and plug in two cables, and on a live plan the replacement is covered.
And if the fault is the line
If your broadband is down, guest WiFi is down with it, and that one is between you and your provider. We can tell you which of the two it is, which usually saves an argument.
Support is Monday to Friday, 06:00–15:00 GMT (07:00–16:00 BST) — an early-start desk, which suits a venue opening up for the day.
Bigger rooms, thicker walls
When one router is not enough.
A single unit covers a normal bar, a café, a salon or a small restaurant comfortably. A rambling coaching inn with stone walls, a function room down a corridor or a first floor of bedrooms is a different problem, and we will say so rather than sell you something that disappoints.
Where extra coverage is needed, we plan it — where the access points go, how they connect back, what cabling is required — and your own electrician or IT contractor does the physical work to that plan. You get a proper design without paying survey-and-install rates for it, and you use a trade you already know and already trust with your building.
If you do not have a trade you use, say so when you enquire and we will be straight with you about what the venue can achieve with one unit before you commit to anything.
How the coverage conversation goes
- You describe the layout — rooms, floors, wall construction, where guests actually sit.
- We tell you honestly whether one unit covers it.
- If it does not, we draw up the plan: access point positions, cabling, and what it needs to do.
- Your electrician or IT contractor fits it to that plan. We configure and manage everything on it.
Tell us about the venue and we will get it built.
A short form is all it takes to start. Packages from £39 per venue per month with no VAT added, the router included on a 12-month plan, and nothing to pay for a survey or an installation.
Or email sales@hotwireless.co.uk