Campsite, holiday park and RV park WiFi: coverage and charging

WiFi at a campsite, holiday park, caravan park or RV park has to reach guests spread across fields and hardstandings, many of them inside a caravan, lodge or motorhome, often on the only internet connection on site. This guide covers the network, what to charge for, the sign-in page, and how a captive portal controls access and gives the park a way to invite guests back. Radio rules and Starlink details link to the regulators and to Starlink's own help pages.

Covering pitches spread across open ground

On a park, the planning questions are how far each access point reaches across the pitches, what stands in the way, and how each access point connects back to the router. Hedges, trees, banks and the units themselves sit between an access point and a phone, and a guest inside a static caravan or motorhome is behind its walls too. Test from inside a unit on the furthest pitch with the door shut, as well as from the grass outside it.

Cable is the most dependable link back to the network, and power over Ethernet carries power and data on one run, so a unit on a pole or the shower block wall needs a single cable. Where a field is too far to cable, a point-to-point wireless bridge can carry the link to a cabled access point at the far end, or a meshed access point can relay it, at a cost in throughput for each wireless hop. Our guides to how many access points a venue needs and mesh versus wired access points work through the sums, and both apply to a field as well as a building.

Radio rules for access points mounted outdoors

An access point fixed to a pole or an outside wall is a fixed outdoor installation, and some WiFi bands are closed to those. The UK and the US draw the lines in different places.

Point-to-point bridges between buildings can also use 5725 to 5850 MHz at up to 4 W under Ofcom's fixed wireless access rules (IR 2007). IR 2030 also allows 2.4 GHz WiFi at 100 mW with no indoor condition, so under it a pole-mounted access point uses 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channels between 5470 and 5730 MHz. Ofcom's 2026 exemption for standard power 6 GHz equipment, which takes its channels from a dynamic spectrum access service, is described in its voluntary national specification. Buy units sold as outdoor models for your country and have your installer set the channels.

The internet connection sets the ceiling

More access points spread the load across more radios, but every guest still shares the one internet connection behind them. Size it for the hour when the most devices are online at once, which your controller's client history shows once the season is under way, and count devices: one pitch can bring phones, tablets, a laptop and a TV.

If the park runs on Starlink, its help pages raise two points for guest WiFi. Residential and Roam plans use carrier-grade NAT and "have a limit of 1,200 concurrent sessions"; once it is reached, "new sessions automatically cause the oldest sessions to be dropped". The limit belongs to the plan, so every guest device behind the dish shares it. Priority plans "include a public IP address and do not have the session limitations associated with CGNAT" (CGNAT session limits). The dish also needs a clear sky: if it will not be the tallest object on site, Starlink advises its app's Check for Obstructions tool, which "scans the sky for trees, poles, or other objects that can interrupt service" (checking for obstructions).

Without a public IP address, nothing outside can open a connection to equipment on site, so the portal has to work outbound. On CaptiFi, a UniFi console with no public IP connects through the UniFi Remote Tunnel, which the setup wizard offers for CGNAT, 4G and Starlink; an Omada site on Starlink uses Omada's Cloud-Based Controller; and the CaptiFi device needs no static IP.

Sharing the connection between pitches

Per-guest limits stop a handful of devices using the whole connection. In CaptiFi you set them per venue under My Locations, Edit site: a download speed, an upload speed and a data allowance per guest, each optional. The data allowance lasts one session and resets when the guest signs in again. Limits are enforced on UniFi with a controller login or local API key, on CaptiFi devices, and through RADIUS on Aruba Instant On, Cisco, Ruckus and Fortinet. On TP-Link Omada, Cisco Meraki and cloud-only UniFi they are saved but have no effect yet.

The session length, set for the whole venue up to 365 days or Unlimited, decides how often a guest sees the sign-in page. A session as long as a typical stay means each device signs in once on arrival, and seasonal pitch holders are not asked again every few days. Because the data allowance resets only when the session ends, a long session means the allowance has to last the whole stay.

Free, voucher or paid: choosing how guests get online

A CaptiFi venue runs one access mode at a time, and the park can switch between them whenever it likes.

Paid WiFi passes for longer stays

Charging helps pay for the connection, and lets a guest working from a lodge for a week buy what they need. CaptiFi Paid WiFi turns the sign-in page into a checkout: guests pick a pass, pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay into the park's own Stripe account, and are online seconds later, with no CaptiFi commission. Each pass has a label, a price, a duration from 30 minutes to 7 days, an optional data allowance from 100 MB to 10 GB or unlimited, and optional speeds from 1 to 500 Mbps.

A park might match its ladder to the stays it sells: a 24-hour pass for one-night stops, a 2-day pass for weekends and a 7-day pass for a week's holiday, with a faster 7-day pass for guests who stream or work. A guest staying a fortnight buys a second pass when the first runs out and disconnects them. Price each pass in your own currency.

Speed tiers are enforced on UniFi only; elsewhere the speed is shown on the pass but not applied. Data allowances are enforced on UniFi, CaptiFi devices and the RADIUS platforms, best effort on Omada and not at all on Meraki click-through, and a pass whose data runs out early is not refunded automatically. A free taster of 50 MB to 1 GB lets a guest check messages before paying, one free session per device every 24 hours. Buyers join the guest database with the name and email from their payment.

Voucher codes per pitch or per stay

In voucher mode nobody gets online without a code. CaptiFi codes are unique eight-character combinations of letters and numbers, generated in batches of 1 to 100 with an access duration for each batch, and a batch copies out in one click for printing on arrival cards. A code that is used up, expired or revoked stops working, and staff can revoke an unused code from its row if it starts circulating round the site.

The voucher API lets a reception till, or any system your developer connects, create up to 50 codes in one request. Each API code carries a number of uses, one by default, so a single code can cover every device on a pitch. Codes made this way do not lapse until used or revoked, and the duration starts when the code is used, so one can go out with the booking confirmation.

The sign-in page

Guests sign in on a branded page with an email address or a phone number. Keep the form short, put the WiFi terms on it, and keep the marketing question separate, with nothing chosen in advance. CaptiFi recognises a returning device and lets it straight through, and the page can appear in English, French or Spanish, picked from the phone's language setting.

The page doubles as a site noticeboard. On the Planner a park can schedule a message strip of up to 200 characters, such as a pool closure or a quiz night in the clubhouse, or swap in a seasonal design, and each change reverts at its end time. These WiFi Automations are on every plan. Smart TVs and casting devices in lodges cannot complete a sign-in page; on CaptiFi access points and UniFi venues they can be pre-authorised by MAC address.

Inviting holidaymakers back, with consent

If a stay was booked through a third-party site, the park may not hold the guest's own email address, and the WiFi sign-in can supply it within the marketing rules of its country.

In the UK, the ICO describes a cafe whose WiFi terms treat handing over contact details as consent to marketing, and concludes: "This is not therefore valid consent" (ICO consent guidance). The soft opt-in in PECR regulation 22(3) covers details obtained "in the course of the sale or negotiations for the sale of a product or service", for similar products only, with a simple way to refuse at collection and in every message. A direct booking is a sale, so its email may qualify for marketing similar stays; a free WiFi sign-in is not, so the WiFi list relies on the marketing box. Our guide to guest WiFi marketing laws by country covers Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

CaptiFi records each guest's consent at sign-in. To mark a season's guests, run the Planner's Tag guests who connect automation, repeated weekly on every day until the season's last date, so everyone who connects carries a tag such as "Summer 2026". Before next year's bookings open, an email or text campaign to an audience built on that tag reaches only the guests who opted in. Email marketing, SMS and automated review requests are on the Growth plan and above.

Running park WiFi on CaptiFi

CaptiFi runs on a park's own access points from the ecosystems on the hardware page, each with a setup guide. The plug-and-play CaptiFi device plugs into an existing network by Ethernet and brings up a branded guest network once you enter its activation PIN, in about five minutes from start to finish, included with a refundable deposit. It is designed for indoor use only, so it suits reception, a clubhouse or the site shop; the pitches need outdoor-rated access points.

Each park is a venue with its own sign-in page, passes, vouchers and limits. Every plan includes one venue and more can be added on any plan; Pro adds the multi-site dashboard with combined figures across a group's parks. The branded sign-in page, contact capture, paid WiFi and vouchers are on every plan from Essentials, from $69/mo on the pricing page, and you can try it on your own network with a 30-day free trial.

Sources, checked on 3 October 2026: Starlink Help Center, CGNAT session limits and checking for obstructions; Ofcom, UK Interface Requirement 2030 (7 April 2026) and Voluntary National Specification 2026/7/1 (20 July 2026); 47 CFR 15.407; the ICO, When is consent appropriate?; PECR regulation 22; CaptiFi's customer documentation and feature pages. Rules change; this is general information, not legal advice. Starlink, UniFi, Omada, Meraki, Aruba Instant On, Ruckus, Fortinet, Stripe, Apple Pay and Google Pay are trade marks of their owners, and Wi-Fi is a trade mark of the Wi-Fi Alliance; CaptiFi is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.