Schedule Your Guest WiFi Around Your Busiest Days
Plan an event once on the Planner calendar and CaptiFi runs your WiFi for it: a different splash page, a temporary network name, a message banner, or a tag on every guest who connects. Each one applies at the start time and puts itself back at the end time, in your venue's own timezone.
What is WiFi Automations?
WiFi Automations schedules what your guest WiFi does around an event: a different splash page, a temporary network name, a message banner, or a tag on every guest who connects that day. Plan it once on the Planner calendar with a start and a required end time, and each change applies itself and reverts itself in your venue's timezone. For venues with busy days worth planning around. Included on every plan, from Essentials up.
Before, and with CaptiFi
Before
Event nights are when guest WiFi earns its money, and they are also when nobody has time to touch it. So the quiz night splash page goes up late, the festival network name never gets changed back, and the crowd that filled the room on match day walks out without ever becoming a marketing list.
With CaptiFi
CaptiFi turns those jobs into scheduled automations. Pick the day, pick what should happen, set a start and end time, and it runs itself. The end time is required, so nothing is ever left switched on: your default splash design and your original WiFi name always come back on their own.
What you get
Four automations per event: swap the splash page, rename the WiFi, show a message banner, or tag every guest who connects
Mandatory end time on every automation, so your normal setup always returns without anyone remembering to undo it
Tag everyone who connects on a given day, then email or text that exact crowd before the next one
Weekly repeats for recurring nights, pinned to your venue's local clock through daylight saving changes
Edit or cancel anything still queued, and stop a running automation early with an instant revert
A morning-of email listing what will run, plus an immediate alert if anything fails to apply or revert
See it in your dashboard
Four automations, one event
Switch on any combination for the same day. Each row shows exactly what will happen, the window it runs in, who scheduled it and how long until it starts, with Edit and Cancel while it is still waiting.
- Mix and match all four on one event
- Edit or cancel anything not yet started
Turn one busy day into a marketing list
Give the day a tag and every guest who connects inside the window gets it on their profile, first visit or fiftieth. When the window ends the tagging stops, and everyone tagged keeps the tag, so the list is still there when the fixture comes round again.
- Catches returning regulars, not just new guests
- Tags are never removed when the window ends
Then email or text that exact crowd
Build an audience with a Guest tag condition and the tagged guests become a saved segment with a live count, selectable in the email and SMS campaign wizard. Tag matching is exact, so a "VIP" audience never picks up someone tagged "MVP".
- Live guest count on the saved audience
- Works for both email and SMS campaigns
Swap the splash page for the night
Choose any saved design for the window and CaptiFi puts your default back at the end time. Preview opens the real splash page in a new tab first, and a design in use by a scheduled automation cannot be deleted by accident.
- Reverts to your default design, not just the previous one
- Preview the exact page guests will see
Rename the network, then put it back
Run a festival or sponsor name for the day and your original name returns automatically. CaptiFi warns you plainly that renaming drops every connected guest, so you schedule the switchover for quiet hours rather than mid-service.
- Original name restored at the end time
- Needs a CaptiFi device or a linked UniFi controller
What is a guest WiFi automation?
A guest WiFi automation is a scheduled change to what your WiFi does, set once against a date and then run for you. In CaptiFi you plan an event on the Planner calendar and attach the automations you want: a different splash page, a temporary network name, a message banner on the splash page, or a tag applied to every guest who connects. Each one starts at a time you choose and puts itself back at the end time, using your venue's own local clock.
Can you schedule a captive portal splash page to change?
Yes. Choose any saved design from your splash page library, set a start and end time, and CaptiFi puts that design live for the window and restores your default design afterwards. The end time is required rather than optional, which is the part that matters in practice: an event design can never be left up for a week because somebody forgot to change it back.
Why tag the guests who connect on one day?
Because a busy day is a marketing list you only get one chance to record. A pub near a stadium fills up on match day with people who may never be identified again. Tagging everyone who connects during that window puts a label on their guest profile, including the regulars who came back, and that label becomes an audience you can email or text before the next fixture. Tags are never removed when the window ends, so the list keeps its value.
For journeys that start from a guest's WiFi sign-in, with waits, branches, text messages and points, see Workflows.
CaptiFi is a guest WiFi marketing and captive portal platform for restaurants, bars, pubs, cafes, hotels, gyms, salons, retail and short-term rentals, built by CaptiFi Ltd in the UK and sold in GBP, USD, EUR, CAD, AUD and NZD to venues worldwide.
How to schedule a guest WiFi automation for an event
Plan the event on the Planner calendar
Open Planner in the dashboard, click the day and give the event a title, a date and a type. This is the day your automations will run.
Choose the venue and switch on the automations you want
Open the WiFi automation section, pick the venue, then switch on any combination of splash page swap, WiFi name change, message strip and guest tagging. Anything your hardware cannot do is greyed out with the reason.
Set a start and end time for each one
Times are your venue's local clock, and the end time is required. Every automation reverts itself, so you never schedule the undo.
Save, and let it run
The event day gets a badge per automation and the panel beside the calendar counts down to the next run. You get an email on the morning of the event listing what will happen.
Turn the tagged guests into a campaign
After the day, build an audience with a Guest tag condition matching the tag you used, then send an email or SMS campaign to exactly that crowd before the next event.
Pick any combination for the same event
Switch on one or all four. Every automation gets its own window, and every window reverts itself. A scheduled automation has an Edit button while it is still waiting to run, on the Planner card and the Scheduled automations tab. A typo in a tag or a message, a different splash design or a moved start and end time is fixed in place without rebuilding it.
Swap splash page
Show a different saved design for the window, then return to your venue default. Preview the exact page guests will see before you schedule it, and a design in use by a scheduled automation cannot be deleted by mistake.
Best for: Quiz nights, seasonal menus, sponsored events, a themed weekend.
Change WiFi name
Run a temporary network name of up to 32 characters and get your original name back automatically at the end time. CaptiFi warns you up front that renaming drops every connected guest, so you can pick quiet hours for the switchover.
Best for: Festivals, sponsor activations, private hire, pop-ups.
Message strip
Add a short dismissible banner on top of whatever design is already live, in one of four styles. No design work at all, and it disappears for everyone at the end time.
Best for: Happy hour, kick-off times, last orders, a one-off offer.
Tag guests who connect
Label every guest who connects during the window, first visit or fiftieth, then build an audience from that tag and send to it. Tagging stops at the end time and everyone tagged keeps the tag.
Best for: Match days, festival weekends, ticketed events, launch nights.
What venues schedule
Pubs and sports bars
Tag everyone who connects on a home game day, swap to a fixture splash page for the afternoon and run a message strip with the kick-off time. Before the next home game, text the tagged crowd.
Restaurants and cafes
Schedule a seasonal menu splash page for the weeks it applies, and a message strip for a set-menu window, without touching the builder again once it is planned.
Events and festivals
Rename the network to the event name for the weekend, swap to an event splash page and tag every attendee who connects, so the audience survives after the site clears.
Hotels and venues for hire
Run a private-hire network name and splash page for the duration of a booking, with the house setup returning automatically the moment the window ends.
Gyms and studios
Use weekly repeats for recurring classes or member nights: one schedule, pinned to your local clock, running every week until you stop it.
Multi-site operators
Automations belong to the venue, not the person, so anyone on the team with splash page permission sees what is scheduled where, with the creator named on every row.
Which automations work on your WiFi
Splash swaps, message strips and guest tagging work everywhere, because CaptiFi serves your splash page and logs your guests itself. Renaming the network needs remote-rename support from your controller.
| Your WiFi hardware | Splash swap | Message strip | Tag guests | WiFi name change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CaptiFi plug-and-play device | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| UniFi (all connection types) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| TP-Link Omada | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes, with an Admin-role Open API app and a chosen guest WiFi network |
| Cisco Meraki | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not yet |
| Ruckus | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not yet |
| Aruba Instant On | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not supported |
| Fortinet FortiAP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not supported |
Where renaming is not available the toggle is disabled in the dashboard with the reason for your setup, rather than failing silently on the night. Full detail is in the Planner guide.
WiFi automation questions answered
Can I schedule my guest WiFi splash page to change automatically?
Do scheduled WiFi changes undo themselves?
Can I tag every guest who connects on a particular day?
How do I market to the guests a tag collected?
Can I run the same automation every week?
Can CaptiFi change my WiFi network name for an event?
Will renaming the WiFi disconnect my guests?
Can I change or cancel an automation after scheduling it?
How do I know an automation actually ran?
Scheduled splash swaps and event WiFi names from Essentials up
Scheduled splash swaps, temporary network names, message strips and guest tagging are on Essentials and every CaptiFi plan above it. There is no separate scheduling tool to buy; the campaigns a tagged audience feeds are on Growth.
What Our Customers Say
CaptiFi completely changed my business. Before, every guest was a one-time booki...
CaptiFi completely changed my business. Before, every guest was a one-time booking. Now I have a direct line to thousands of people who've stayed in the plane. I can offer them return deals, send updates about new features, and keep them engaged. My repeat booking rate went from almost zero to 35%. It's been incredible.
Johnny Palmer
Owner, PytchAir Boeing 727 Airbnb
Related Features
Branded Splash Pages
Full creative control over your captive portal, with no code needed.
Learn more
Automated Marketing
Set it and forget it: email and SMS marketing that runs itself.
Learn more
SMS Marketing
Text the guests you already have: campaigns and automations from WiFi opt-ins.
Learn more
Workflows
Draw a guest journey once on a canvas and let the WiFi run it.
Learn more
Ready to Turn Your Guest WiFi into Revenue?
Start your 30-day free trial today. Hardware included (refundable deposit), no setup costs, cancel anytime.