The moment a guest logs into your Wi-Fi is the best marketing moment you have. They are already in your venue, already spending, already engaged. Fydelia lets you use that moment to bring them back — directly, without paying a booking platform for the privilege.
Hospitality Angle
The Problem
Most venues pay OTAs or booking platforms 15–25% commission on repeat bookings from guests who already know and like the venue. That commission is avoidable.
What You’ll Learn
How Fydelia uses the Wi-Fi login moment — and the verified email it captures — to drive return visits and direct bookings without commissions or cold outreach.
Where We Fit
Carden Hotspots installs Fydelia and configures your splash page, post-visit email flows, and returning guest recognition so the rebooking tools work from day one.
Best For
Hotels, restaurants, spas, and entertainment venues where repeat custom is commercially significant and OTA commission is a meaningful cost.
Three Things to Know Before You Read On
- A guest who books directly costs you nothing in commission — Fydelia’s email capture at Wi-Fi login gives you the contact data to make direct rebooking possible
- Returning guests are identified automatically when they reconnect, allowing you to show them a personalised welcome and a targeted offer rather than a generic login page
- The Wi-Fi login moment — when the guest is physically in your venue and already satisfied enough to be spending time there — is the highest-intent marketing touchpoint you have access to
Updated: 2025-07-01
Key sources: Fydelia Features · UK Hospitality · ICO Data Protection Guide
The Commission Problem
Online travel agencies and restaurant booking platforms have transformed hospitality distribution. They give venues access to a large pool of new guests who might never have found them otherwise. That is genuinely valuable — particularly for hotels and restaurants without strong brand awareness.
The cost is well understood: commissions ranging from around 15% to 25% or more on each booking. For a new guest who discovered you through the platform, that commission is arguably reasonable — you paid to be found. For a repeat guest who already knows and likes your venue, who would have come back anyway, that same commission is a harder pill to swallow. You are effectively paying a third party to facilitate a relationship that already exists.
The Wi-Fi channel will not replace OTAs for new guest acquisition. It should not try to. What it can do is reduce your reliance on OTAs for repeat bookings — the guests you have already paid to acquire and who now, if managed well, should cost you very little to retain.
The Marketing Moment You Are Missing
Marketing professionals spend considerable effort and money trying to reach people at moments of high intent — when they are actively thinking about a product or experience, already in the right mindset to act on a message. It is why search advertising commands a premium over display advertising, and why in-store promotions outperform postal campaigns.
The Wi-Fi login moment is, in hospitality terms, one of the highest-intent marketing touchpoints that exists. The guest is physically in your venue. They have already decided to spend time there. They are, at that specific moment, in the frame of mind associated with your experience. They have not yet left, so any positive emotions from the visit are fully present.
And yet most venues do nothing with it. The guest logs in, gets online, and the moment passes. No prompt to book again. No offer linked to their visit. No capture of anything that would allow you to reach them again when they are ready to rebook.
⏩Without Fydelia
Guest has a great meal. Connects to Wi-Fi with a shared password. Leaves satisfied. Three weeks later, they want to come back for a friend’s birthday. They go to Google, find your venue on a booking platform, book through that platform. You pay 20% commission on a guest who was already yours to keep.
✓With Fydelia
Same guest, same great meal. Connects through Fydelia splash page, provides email, opts into marketing. Sees a post-visit email two days later with a direct booking link for their next visit. Three weeks later, when the birthday dinner comes up, your email is already in their inbox. They book direct. Commission: zero.
How Fydelia Drives Direct Bookings
Fydelia supports the direct booking goal through several connected tools that work together across the visit and post-visit window.
Email capture with marketing opt-in at login
When a guest connects through the Fydelia splash page, they provide a verified email address. A separate, clearly labelled opt-in checkbox — distinct from the Wi-Fi usage policy acceptance — allows them to consent to receiving marketing communications from your venue. This is GDPR-compliant and produces a list of opted-in contacts who have an existing relationship with your venue. They are warm leads, not cold ones.
The difference between this list and a purchased or scraped email list is significant. Every contact on it has visited your venue, enjoyed it enough to connect to the Wi-Fi, and explicitly agreed to hear from you again. Open rates and click-through rates on this type of list substantially outperform cold email marketing.
Post-visit automated email flows
Fydelia can trigger automated emails at set intervals after a guest’s visit. A thank-you email sent the following day, a “we’d love to see you again” message a week later with a direct booking link, a seasonal offer timed for a relevant occasion. These flows are configured once and run automatically — no manual sending, no staff effort beyond the initial setup.
Splash page booking prompts
At the point of login, the splash page can include a direct booking call to action alongside the Wi-Fi access form. A hotel might show “Book your next stay direct and save 10%” above the login button. A restaurant might display “Reserve a table for your next visit — no booking fee.” These prompts reach guests at the exact moment of highest engagement with your venue.
Timed on-site offers
Using Fydelia’s dweller offer functionality (covered in detail in Page 3), you can push a return-visit incentive to guests who have been connected for a set period. “Enjoying your visit? Book your next stay before you leave and lock in today’s rate.” Triggered mid-visit, when the guest’s experience is at its peak, this type of prompt converts at a meaningful rate.
Recognising Returning Guests
One of the more powerful — and underused — features of Fydelia is returning guest recognition. When a guest who has previously connected to your Wi-Fi returns and logs in again, Fydelia identifies them automatically via their stored email or device identifier.
This allows you to show them a different splash page experience from a first-time visitor. Rather than a generic welcome and login form, a returning guest might see: “Welcome back, [First Name]. Great to have you again.” Alongside a personalised offer based on their visit history — a loyalty reward, a room upgrade prompt, or a seasonal special for regular guests only.
Why This Matters
Being recognised as a returning guest — even just by name, even just on a splash page — creates a positive emotional moment that reinforces loyalty. It signals that your venue remembers them and values their return. This is basic relationship marketing, but it is currently absent from almost every hospitality Wi-Fi deployment in the UK.
The data that makes this possible — the verified email address, the visit timestamp, the connection history — is captured automatically by Fydelia at every login. You do not need to maintain a separate CRM or manually record guest visits. The platform builds the record for you.
The Guest Journey End to End
Here is how the full rebooking journey looks when Fydelia is properly configured — from first visit through to repeat direct booking.
Guest arrives and connects to Wi-Fi through Fydelia splash page. Provides verified email, accepts usage policy, and optionally ticks the marketing opt-in. Fydelia logs the visit and adds the contact to your opted-in list if consent was given.
Automated — zero staff effortAfter 45 minutes connected, a dweller offer is triggered. The guest sees a prompt on their device: “Enjoying your stay? Book direct next time and save 10% — book now while you’re with us.” Includes a direct booking link.
Configurable trigger pointAn automated email is sent to opted-in guests the following day. Warm, brief, on-brand. Includes a soft prompt to leave a review and a direct booking link for their next visit. No discount required — just a frictionless path back to your booking system.
Automated — triggered by visit dataA follow-up email goes out with a specific incentive: a direct booking offer, an upcoming event at the venue, or a seasonal promotion. This is the email that catches the guest at the moment they are starting to think about their next outing.
Scheduled or automatedGuest returns and reconnects to Wi-Fi. Fydelia recognises them. Splash page shows a personalised welcome. Any loyalty credits or returning guest offers are applied automatically. The relationship deepens without any manual intervention.
Fully automated recognitionGDPR Reminder
Post-visit email marketing is only permitted to guests who have explicitly opted in at the point of Wi-Fi connection. Fydelia keeps the usage policy acceptance and the marketing opt-in as separate, distinct checkboxes. Do not conflate them — making marketing consent a condition of Wi-Fi access is not compliant. Only send marketing emails to the opted-in segment of your contact list.
Practical Setup by Venue Type
Hotels
Focus on OTA commission reduction
The commission saving case is clearest for hotels. Configure a direct booking offer on the splash page and a post-checkout email sequence linking to your own booking engine. Even converting 10–15% of repeat bookings from OTA to direct is a meaningful margin improvement at scale.
Restaurants
Use occasions and events
Post-visit emails work particularly well when anchored to an occasion — Christmas menu launch, Valentine’s Day early booking, a new chef or seasonal menu. Guests who enjoyed their last visit are receptive to a reason to come back. Make it easy with a direct reservation link.
Spas & Wellness
Target the re-treat cycle
Spa guests often return on a regular cadence — monthly treatments, seasonal day-spa visits, birthday or anniversary treats. A well-timed email at six to eight weeks after a visit, with a relevant offer for the next season, catches them at the natural point of considering a repeat booking.
Pubs
Event-led rebooking
Pubs with regular events — quiz nights, live music, sports screenings — have a ready-made reason to email their Wi-Fi list. “Next week’s quiz is on Thursday — book your table now” is a low-pressure, high-relevance message that drives footfall without discounting.
Cafés
Loyalty over rebooking
For cafés, repeat visits tend to happen naturally — the rebooking barrier is low. The bigger opportunity is in loyalty recognition (covered in Page 7) rather than formal rebooking campaigns. Focus on the returning guest recognition experience over post-visit email sequences.
Multi-Site Groups
Cross-property rebooking
A guest who stays at one property in your group is a warm lead for another. Fydelia’s multi-venue shared sign-on allows guest data captured at one site to be used across the group — enabling cross-property marketing that OTAs cannot offer at equivalent cost.
Rebooking Tools — Summary
Email Capture
Verified email at Wi-Fi login — the foundation of all post-visit marketing
Opt-In
Separate GDPR-compliant marketing consent checkbox at splash page
Post-Visit Email
Automated thank-you and rebooking sequence triggered by visit data
On-Site Prompts
Splash page booking CTA and dweller offers during the visit
Return Recognition
Personalised splash page for returning guests — name and targeted offer
Commission Saved
Zero per direct booking — vs 15–25% on OTA repeat bookings
What to Watch Next
The direct booking tools in Fydelia are well-established. A few developments are worth tracking as you plan your deployment.
Booking engine integrations. The effectiveness of the post-visit email is directly linked to how frictionless the booking link inside it is. If your booking engine requires guests to re-enter details they have already provided, conversion rates drop. Fydelia’s integration with major hospitality booking systems continues to develop — ask about current integration options when scoping your setup with Carden Hotspots.
Data enrichment over time. The more visits Fydelia logs for a guest, the more useful the data becomes for personalisation. A guest on their fifth visit has a richer profile than a first-timer — visit frequency, preferred days and times, approximate spend level. As Fydelia’s analytics capabilities develop, this data will increasingly support more targeted and effective post-visit communications.
Appetite for direct booking among guests. Guest behaviour is shifting. Many guests, particularly younger ones, are comfortable booking direct if the process is simple and the incentive is clear. The venues that invest in making direct booking frictionless — and in communicating the benefits clearly — are well-positioned to capture a growing share of repeat bookings outside the OTA channel.
To see how real venues are using these tools, check our case studies.
Frequently Asked Questions
More general questions? Read our FAQs.
Can we use Fydelia email data with our existing CRM or email platform?
Yes. Fydelia integrates with a range of CRM and email marketing platforms — including Mailchimp, HubSpot, and others — and can export contact data in standard formats. The opted-in contacts captured through your Wi-Fi login can be synced to your existing marketing platform and included in your regular email campaigns. Fydelia also has its own built-in email tools for post-visit sequences if you do not have a separate platform in place. Check with Carden Hotspots for the current integration list relevant to your setup.
How quickly after a visit does the post-visit email go out?
The timing is configurable. A same-day email while the visit is still fresh can work well for some venues — particularly if it includes a review prompt. A next-day email tends to feel more natural and less pressured. The rebooking follow-up email works best at seven to fourteen days, when the guest is in a natural planning window for their next outing. You can run a simple sequence: thank-you on day one, rebooking offer on day seven, seasonal campaign thereafter. All triggered automatically from the visit log.
What percentage of guests typically opt in to marketing at Wi-Fi login?
Opt-in rates vary by venue type, how the splash page is designed, and how the opt-in is presented. Rates of 30–60% of connecting guests opting in to marketing are plausible for a well-configured splash page where the value exchange is clear — “sign up to hear about our events and offers.” Venues that make the opt-in feel like a transaction requirement rather than a genuine choice tend to see lower rates. We would be cautious about quoting a specific number as a guarantee — the right expectation is that a meaningful proportion of your connecting guests will opt in, not all of them.
Does Fydelia connect to our online booking system?
Fydelia supports integration with a growing number of booking systems, and the splash page and post-visit emails can link directly to any booking URL — including your own website’s booking engine, a third-party system, or a direct reservation email. The depth of native integration varies by booking platform. For a hotel or restaurant with a specific booking system in mind, it is worth confirming the integration options with Carden Hotspots before deployment so the direct booking link is as frictionless as possible for guests.
If a guest books direct after seeing our email, how do we track that it came from Fydelia?
The simplest approach is to use UTM parameters in the booking link inside the email — tagging the link so your booking engine or Google Analytics records that the visit came from your post-visit email campaign. This gives you a clear attribution line from Fydelia email to direct booking. It requires a small amount of setup but is straightforward for anyone familiar with basic email marketing. Carden Hotspots can advise on how to set this up as part of your deployment configuration.
We already send a newsletter — is this just duplicating what we already do?
Not quite. There are two meaningful differences. First, the Fydelia list is built from verified, in-venue contacts who have an active relationship with your venue — it tends to perform better than a general newsletter list built from website sign-ups or social followers. Second, the post-visit email trigger is behavioural — it fires because a guest visited, not because it is the first Tuesday of the month. That timing specificity improves relevance and, usually, conversion. Running both channels simultaneously is sensible — they serve slightly different functions and reach overlapping but not identical audiences.
Ready to Stop Paying Commission on Guests You Already Have?
The guests who already know and like your venue are your most valuable asset. Making it easy for them to come back directly — and giving them a reason to do so — is the lowest-cost, highest-return marketing you can do.
Carden Hotspots installs Fydelia and configures the full post-visit journey — email capture, opt-in flows, automated sequences, and returning guest recognition — so everything is working from the first day of operation.
Let’s turn your Wi-Fi into a direct booking channel
A short call is enough to understand your current booking mix and which Fydelia tools would make the most immediate difference for your venue. No commitment — just a practical conversation.
Let’s Talk! Back to OverviewCarden Hotspots installs and manages guest Wi-Fi for hospitality venues across the UK. Powered by Fydelia.