Guest WiFi Glossary: Key Terms Explained

Captive portal

A captive portal is a web page that intercepts a device's internet access and redirects it to a login or registration page. The device can reach the portal but not the open internet until the guest completes the login.

The router handles the redirect, then allows the device onto the network once the guest has authenticated. The login page a guest sees is often called the splash page.

Guest WiFi

Guest WiFi is the WiFi network a venue offers to its customers. In hospitality it usually sits behind a captive portal, so the login can capture who is connecting.

CaptiveWiFi is a guest WiFi and captive portal platform built for hospitality: restaurants, hotels, bars, golf clubs and food halls.

Guest WiFi marketing

Guest WiFi marketing is using the WiFi login to build a consented guest list that a venue can market to. Instead of treating WiFi as a utility, the venue captures a name, an email address and marketing consent at the moment of connection.

Across venues on the CaptiveWiFi network, the average guest WiFi opt-in rate is over 90%, compared with 10 to 20% for a booking platform or website form.

Social WiFi

Social WiFi is a guest WiFi login where the guest signs in with a social account such as Facebook, Google or Apple instead of typing details. It aims to give the venue a verified identity with no typing for the guest.

In practice social logins can add friction on a captive portal. Apple's Hide My Email creates relay addresses guests never check, Facebook two-factor codes are hard to retrieve in a captive portal browser, and Google blocks sign-in from embedded browsers.

RADIUS

RADIUS is a network protocol that lets WiFi hardware check with a central server whether a device should be allowed to connect. In RADIUS-backed captive portal deployments, the RADIUS client, which can be an access point, controller or gateway, sends the authentication request to a RADIUS server and redirects the guest to an external portal page.

CaptiveWiFi uses RADIUS with some hardware vendors, including Cisco Catalyst, TP-Link Omada, Cambium and Extreme Networks, where CaptiveWiFi acts as the RADIUS server. Not every integration uses RADIUS: UniFi uses the UniFi Network API, while Meraki and Ruckus One need only a pasted portal URL with no RADIUS server.

WiFi to loyalty

WiFi to loyalty means a guest joins a venue's loyalty programme as part of connecting to its WiFi. The guest enters their email to get online, and that single action also creates their loyalty membership, with no app download and no second form.

CaptiveWiFi enrols guests in about 15 seconds through direct integrations with loyalty platforms including Leat, Como, Paytronix, Pepper and Square.

First-party guest data

First-party guest data is information a guest gives directly to a venue, not inferred or purchased from someone else. At WiFi login that can include name, email address, date of birth, marketing consent and visit history.

It is the most valuable kind of data for building a CRM, personalising communications and measuring loyalty, because the venue collected it directly from the guest.

Consent and GDPR for WiFi login

Collecting guest data at WiFi login is legal in the UK, but it needs a lawful basis and, for marketing emails or SMS, generally specific consent. That consent must be freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous, usually a separate unticked checkbox that is not bundled with WiFi access.

Three frameworks apply to UK hospitality WiFi: UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 and PECR. Venues should also store the date and time each guest gave consent. PECR allows limited exceptions, such as a soft opt-in for existing customers. This is general information, not legal advice.

Guest WiFi glossary