How to sell guest WiFi marketing to pubs, restaurants and hotels

Owners in hospitality have heard "capture emails from your WiFi" before, and the phrase on its own rarely sells anything. It lands when the owner sees their own logo on the page their customers will see, and when their questions get short, factual answers. This playbook is for MSPs, WiFi installers and resellers selling to pubs, restaurants and hotels; the guide to guest WiFi for MSPs and white-label resellers covers the partner models themselves.

Who buys guest WiFi in a pub, restaurant or hotel

The buyer is whoever owns the marketing problem, and that is often not the person who looks after the WiFi. Find out early who approves a new monthly cost, because a keen general manager who cannot sign is a slow sale.

Some hotels will ask for a sign-in by room number and surname, which needs a link to the property management system. CaptiFi has no PMS integration, so say so in the first meeting and show the alternatives: an email or phone sign-in, voucher codes handed out at check-in, or paid WiFi passes. The session length is set per venue, and a returning device is let straight through while its address stays the same.

The problems owners already recognise

Lead with problems the owner will name before you do, and have something on screen for each one.

• No guest list. People come in every week and the venue has no way to contact them afterwards. A sign-in page builds that list, with marketing consent asked as its own question.
• Few reviews. Google says a business's prominence is partly based on "how many reviews you have", and that "More reviews and positive ratings can help your business's local ranking" (Google Business Profile Help). On CaptiFi, automated review requests are on Growth.
• Quiet nights. With a list of guests who accepted marketing, a slow Tuesday becomes an email the owner can send that afternoon, or a text to guests who gave a mobile number and agreed to texts (in the US and Canada that is a separate opt-in on the form). Email marketing is on Growth, SMS marketing on Growth and event promos on Growth.
• Platforms owning the customer. Ask the owner whether they could email the people who booked through a travel site or ordered through a delivery app last month. If they can't, the WiFi sign-in is the place those guests meet the venue's own name, on the venue's own network, and the ones who accept marketing become the venue's contacts.

Ask about each problem in the venue's own words before you mention a feature: an owner who tells you Tuesdays are dead has given you the pitch.

Open with a demo of the prospect's own brand

Send the owner a working sign-in page with their logo and colours before you meet, so the first conversation starts from their page. CaptiFi partners build these with the Demo Maker in the partner dashboard on my.captifi.io:

1. Open Partner, then Demos, and click Generate demo.
2. Paste the prospect's website address. CaptiFi reads the logo, colours and business details from the site and builds the demo, usually in 10 to 30 seconds.
3. If the logo looks fuzzy or the venue name is wrong, open Edit splash and fix it in the full splash page builder.
4. Use Send by email to send it with a short personal line. White-label partners' demo emails carry their own branding.

The demo is a live splash page with no watermark, at a public link that is not listed anywhere, and it needs no hardware. The Engagement column shows views, when the demo was last opened and how many times you have sent it, and CaptiFi emails you the first time the prospect opens it. That is the day to call. Demos expire after 30 days and there is no limit on how many you make, so build one for every venue on your list before you visit.

Referral partners should register the prospect as soon as the demo goes out: Register as a referral on the demo opens the Referrals page, where the prospect's name and the email they will sign up with hold the claim for 90 days.

What to show in a 15-minute meeting

Show the guest's view first, then the owner's view, then how it goes in and what it costs. Fifteen minutes between services is often all a busy owner has, so plan it by the minute:

1. Minutes 1 to 3: the owner's own demo, on their own phone. Let them tap through as a guest would, including the marketing question, which CaptiFi asks separately from getting online.
2. Minutes 4 to 8: what the venue sees afterwards. Approved partners get a free 6-month licence for one internal test venue, for testing and demos only, so show the real sign-ins from your own test install on its Guest Visits page. The licence venue has no analytics, marketing or review pages, so show those screens from CaptiFi's feature pages.
3. Minutes 9 to 12: how it goes in. Name their kit and the route: their existing controller with CaptiFi as the external portal, or the CaptiFi device plugged into the existing network.
4. Minutes 13 to 15: the price in the venue's currency and a date to start the trial.

Leave out what the venue won't use in its first month: a pub that wants a guest list and reviews does not need table bookings or event ticketing at the first meeting, even though Growth includes both.

Objections and straight answers

Each common objection has a short factual answer and something you can put in front of the owner.

The ICO's guidance on when consent is appropriate describes a cafe whose WiFi terms say that giving contact details means agreeing to marketing, and concludes: "This is not therefore valid consent." You are not giving legal advice here: the laws guide links each country's regulator, and a venue with a specific question should ask its own adviser.

Google's Tips to get more reviews page also says businesses can "ask customers to visit a Google link or scan a QR code", and a review request emailed after the visit does that without anyone at the bar having to remember to ask.

If you resell, the venue pays your price, which can sit above CaptiFi's public price; the pricing guide covers how to build it.

Pilots and trials

Run the pilot on the venue's own account, on the standard free trial, and keep your demo licence venue for demos. The licence is for internal testing only and never for a live client venue, and CaptiFi sets client venues up on their own accounts, each starting on the standard 30-day trial.

A referred venue signs up with CaptiFi directly, after you have registered it, and a card is taken to start the trial. A reseller or white-label partner adds the venue from the Clients page, or uses Convert to client on the demo, which prefills the form and carries the demo's splash design onto the client's first venue.

Before the trial starts, agree with the owner what you will look at together at the end of it, and book that meeting at the same time:

• new guests in Guest Visits, week by week
• how many guests accepted marketing
• review requests sent, where the venue's plan includes them
• any campaign sent to the list, and what came back

Plan the hardware so the trial is not spent waiting for it. If the venue needs the CaptiFi device, WiFi kit is included on every plan from Essentials up for a refundable deposit, and the deployment checklist covers the install from survey to handover.

What the venue should see in month one

In the first month the owner should see a list that grows every week, and you should see the venue go fully live in your partner dashboard. Set expectations by week:

• Install day: for resellers and white-label partners, the setup pill on the Clients page reaches Ready once the venue is created, the device is online, the splash page is live and the first guest has connected.
• Week one: guests appear in Guest Visits. Verify the venue's sending domain now, because CaptiFi only sends campaigns from a verified domain.
• Each week: the dashboard home shows a weekly insights card for the venue, comparing last week with the week before.
• On Growth: automated review requests go out after visits, and the first campaign can go to guests who accepted marketing. On Growth, the weekly and monthly PDF reports arrive too.
• On your side, as a reseller or white-label partner: the morning health digest flags the venue if anything needs attention.

Treat month one as the baseline for every later review; the guide to proving guest WiFi ROI to your clients sets out a monthly review that uses it. On Growth and Pro, a white-label partner's brand appears on the monthly PDF report while Brand PDF reports is switched on, which also needs Brand the client dashboard on.

Refer, resell or white-label: match the model to how you sell

A consultant who meets owners but won't invoice anyone fits referral, earning 20% of every payment for the client's lifetime while CaptiFi bills and supports the venue, which pays the same as signing up directly. An installer who already bills the venue for its network fits reselling, at a margin of more than a third of CaptiFi's public price, and white label is reselling under your own brand. The guide to guest WiFi for MSPs and white-label resellers sets out the terms, and the guide to referral commission compares referral and reselling from the referrer's side.

Build demos for this week's prospects

Pick the venues you plan to see this week, build a Demo Maker demo for each from its website, and send each with a line asking for a short meeting; the first-open email tells you when to call. If you're not a CaptiFi partner yet, apply online (there's no fee to apply) or book a 15-minute partner call from the MSP programme page.

Sources: Information Commissioner's Office, When is consent appropriate?; Google Business Profile Help, Tips to improve your local ranking on Google and Tips to get more reviews, all checked 22 October 2026; CaptiFi's partner programme pages and customer documentation, October 2026. UniFi, Omada, Meraki, Aruba Instant On, MikroTik, Ruckus, FortiGate, DrayTek, Cisco Catalyst and Google are trade marks of their owners; CaptiFi is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.