Every guest who connects to your Wi-Fi can become a verified, opted-in contact on your marketing list. No forms, no incentives, no staff involvement. Just the natural moment of connection — and Fydelia doing the rest.
Hospitality Angle
The Problem
Most hospitality venues have no reliable way to collect guest contact details at the point of visit. Sign-up forms go ignored, business card bowls collect dust, and the opportunity disappears with every guest who walks out the door.
What You’ll Learn
How Fydelia builds a verified, GDPR-compliant email list from your existing Wi-Fi footfall — and why the list it creates outperforms almost every other hospitality email list in quality.
Where We Fit
Carden Hotspots installs Fydelia and configures the email capture flow, verification, opt-in consent, and export to your chosen email marketing platform — so your list starts growing from day one.
Best For
Any venue that does any form of email marketing, wants to start, or simply wants to own its guest data rather than relying entirely on OTA or booking platform data.
Three Things to Know Before You Read On
- Fydelia verifies every email address before granting Wi-Fi access — meaning your list is built from real, working addresses linked to real people who have visited your venue
- The list grows passively with every single Wi-Fi connection — no staff effort, no printed forms, no forgotten collection bowls
- A list built this way — verified, in-venue, opted-in — consistently outperforms purchased or scraped lists on open rate, click-through, and conversion
Updated: 2025-07-01
Key sources: Fydelia Features · ICO GDPR Guide · PECR Regulations
Why This List Is Different
Not all email lists are equal. A hospitality venue might have several types of contact list: guests who made a booking online and left an email during checkout; social media followers who signed up via a lead capture ad; people who dropped a business card in a bowl at the bar; subscribers who signed up via a form on the website.
Each of these has value. But none of them match a Wi-Fi login list for one simple reason: every contact on a Fydelia-built list has physically been inside your venue, connected to your network, and — if opted in — explicitly agreed to hear from you. That is a combination of verified identity, confirmed location, and active consent that no other passive list-building method achieves.
A Note on Open Rate Figures
We have deliberately avoided quoting a specific open rate for Fydelia-built lists because open rates vary significantly by venue type, email content, and how recently the contact visited. What is consistently reported by venues using this approach is that in-venue Wi-Fi contacts outperform general marketing lists from the same venue. Treat any specific percentage quoted by a vendor with appropriate scepticism.
How Fydelia Captures and Verifies
The process is straightforward for the guest and entirely automatic for the venue.
Step 1: Guest connects to your Wi-Fi
When a guest selects your Wi-Fi network and opens a browser, they are directed to your Fydelia splash page. This is a branded page — your logo, your colours, your welcome message — that sits between the guest and internet access.
Step 2: Email entry and verification
The guest enters their email address. Fydelia performs a real-time check to confirm that the address is syntactically valid and that the domain exists. This filters out obviously fake addresses — test@test.com, random strings, non-existent domains — before they enter your list. It is not a guarantee that every address is actively used, but it removes the most common forms of list pollution.
Step 3: Separate marketing opt-in
A clearly labelled, unticked checkbox below the email field gives the guest the option to receive marketing communications from your venue. This checkbox is distinct from the usage policy acceptance — ticking it is voluntary and separate. Guests who do not tick it can still access the Wi-Fi. Only those who actively opt in are added to your marketing list.
Step 4: Data stored and exportable
Fydelia logs the email address, the connection timestamp, the opt-in status, and the visit count (for returning guests). This data is available in your dashboard and can be exported directly or synced automatically to your email marketing platform.
GDPR and Consent — The Detail That Matters
Under UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR), sending marketing emails to someone requires either their explicit consent or a legitimate interest basis. For most hospitality venues, consent is the cleanest and most defensible basis — and the Fydelia opt-in at Wi-Fi login provides exactly that.
There are a few things to get right for the consent to be valid.
- ✓ The opt-in must be separate from Wi-Fi access. A guest must be able to use your Wi-Fi without ticking the marketing box. Bundling the two is not compliant. Fydelia uses separate checkboxes for usage policy acceptance and marketing consent.
- ✓ The opt-in must be unticked by default. Pre-ticked boxes do not constitute valid consent under UK GDPR. Fydelia’s marketing opt-in is unticked by default.
- ✓ The purpose must be clear. The opt-in label should tell the guest what they are signing up for — “Receive offers, events, and news from [Venue Name]” — not vague language. You configure this wording in the Fydelia dashboard.
- ✓ You must be able to demonstrate consent. Fydelia logs the opt-in with a timestamp, linked to the guest’s email and visit record. That timestamped record is your evidence of consent if it is ever questioned.
- ✗ Do not email guests who did not opt in. The connection log contains email addresses for all connecting guests — including those who did not tick the marketing box. Only the opted-in segment should receive marketing emails. The two groups must be kept distinct in your system.
Legal Reminder
This page is not legal advice. The GDPR and PECR landscape around email marketing consent is well-established but the specifics of how it applies to your venue and your marketing activities are best confirmed with a solicitor or a data protection specialist. The framework described here reflects the ICO’s published guidance as of mid-2025, but regulations can evolve.
How Fast Does the List Grow?
List growth is directly linked to your Wi-Fi connection volume and your opt-in rate. Both vary by venue type and how the splash page is configured.
A rough working model: if your venue averages 60 Wi-Fi connections per day and 40% of connecting guests opt in to marketing, you are adding around 24 new opted-in contacts to your list every day. Over a year, that is roughly 8,700 contacts — all verified, all in-venue, all opted in.
Illustrative List Growth — 60 Daily Connections, 40% Opt-In Rate
Figures are illustrative. Actual growth depends on daily connection volume, opt-in rate, seasonal variation, and list hygiene (unsubscribes, bounces). Multi-site venues accumulate contacts faster.
For context: a list of 5,000 verified, opted-in, in-venue contacts is genuinely useful for a hospitality venue’s email marketing. Most independent venues with a conventional sign-up approach — website forms, manual collection — would take years to reach that number. A busy venue using Fydelia can reach it in under a year without any active effort to grow the list.
What to Do With the List
A list that sits unused in a dashboard is a wasted asset. Here is how hospitality venues typically put the Fydelia-built list to work.
Regular event and offer communications
Monthly or fortnightly emails covering upcoming events, seasonal menus, live music nights, limited-time offers, or new additions to the venue. These are the bread and butter of hospitality email marketing — warm contacts who already know you are the right audience for this type of content.
Triggered post-visit sequences
As covered in Page 5, Fydelia can trigger automated emails at set intervals after a visit — a thank-you the next day, a rebooking offer a week later. These perform particularly well because the timing is behavioural rather than calendar-based.
Seasonal and occasion-led campaigns
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Christmas, New Year — every hospitality venue has a marketing calendar tied to the occasions that drive footfall. A verified, opted-in list of local guests is the ideal audience for these campaigns. They know the venue, they are local enough to visit, and they have already demonstrated that they spend there.
Segmented communications
Fydelia records visit frequency for returning guests. This allows you to segment your list by engagement level — sending a “we miss you” offer to lapsed guests who have not visited in 90 days, while sending a loyalty reward to guests who have connected five or more times. Basic segmentation of this kind consistently outperforms blanket sends on both open rate and conversion.
Quick Check
Before sending any marketing email, run a quick test of your Wi-Fi connection quality from a guest perspective using fast.com. If the connection your guests are using to open your email on-site is slow or unreliable, that is a separate problem worth addressing alongside your email programme.
Connecting to Your Email Platform
Fydelia does not require you to use a new email marketing tool. It integrates with the platforms most hospitality venues already use, syncing opted-in contacts automatically so your Fydelia list feeds into your existing email workflow.
If your email platform is not listed above, Fydelia supports CSV export of the opted-in contact list, which can be imported into any email marketing tool. The integration list continues to grow — check with Carden Hotspots for the current list of native integrations before deployment.
Email List Building — Summary
Capture
Verified email at every Wi-Fi login — automatic, no staff involvement
Verification
Real-time format and domain check before access is granted
Consent
Separate, unticked opt-in checkbox — GDPR compliant by design
Growth Rate
Tied to daily connection volume — entirely passive once configured
List Quality
Verified, in-venue, opted-in — higher engagement than most list types
Integrations
Mailchimp, HubSpot, Klaviyo, and CSV export for any platform
What to Watch Next
Email marketing regulations are relatively stable in the UK, but a few areas are worth keeping an eye on.
UK GDPR reform. The UK government has been exploring changes to the data protection framework post-Brexit. Significant changes affecting consent requirements for marketing emails have not materialised as of mid-2025, but it is worth watching ICO communications if your marketing relies heavily on consent-based lists. The ICO website is the primary source for any updates.
Email platform deliverability. As inboxes become more filtered — Gmail’s promotional tab, Apple’s mail privacy features — the deliverability of marketing emails is increasingly important. A list built from verified, engaged, in-venue contacts tends to have better sender reputation signals than a cold or purchased list, which helps with deliverability. This is a structural advantage of the Fydelia approach that compounds over time.
Integration breadth. Fydelia’s integration ecosystem is growing. If there is a specific CRM or booking system you use that is not currently supported by a native integration, it is worth raising with Carden Hotspots at deployment time — the integration roadmap may already include it, or a CSV workflow can bridge the gap in the interim.
For examples of how venues are putting their Fydelia-built lists to work, check our case studies.
Frequently Asked Questions
More general questions? Read our FAQs.
Can we use the list for any type of marketing email?
Yes, subject to the usual GDPR constraints. The opted-in contacts on your Fydelia list have consented to receive marketing communications from your venue. What counts as a marketing communication — versus a transactional or service email — is defined by the ICO’s guidance and PECR. Promotional emails, event announcements, seasonal offers, and loyalty communications all fall within standard marketing. If in doubt about a specific campaign type, the ICO’s website has practical guidance, or you can seek advice from a data protection specialist.
What happens to guests who do not opt in — can we contact them at all?
Not for marketing purposes. Guests who connect to Wi-Fi but do not tick the marketing opt-in have given their email for the purpose of accessing the network — not for receiving marketing. Using that email address to send promotional content would not be compliant with PECR. Their details should remain in the compliance log (for network activity logging purposes) but must not be added to your marketing list. Fydelia keeps the two segments distinct — opted-in contacts are clearly flagged in the dashboard.
How do we handle unsubscribes?
Every marketing email you send must include a clear unsubscribe mechanism — this is a legal requirement under PECR, not optional. When a guest unsubscribes via your email platform, that suppression should be reflected in the Fydelia contact record to prevent re-adding them to the active list. If you are using a native integration between Fydelia and your email platform, suppression syncing is typically handled automatically. If you are using CSV exports, you will need to manually manage the suppression list to ensure unsubscribed contacts are not re-imported.
What if a guest uses a different email address each time they visit?
Fydelia identifies returning guests primarily by device identifier, with email address as a secondary identifier. A guest who uses a different email at each visit will appear as a new contact each time — their connection history will not be linked across visits. This is an edge case for most venues; the majority of guests use the same email consistently. Where it does occur, the practical impact is a slightly inflated contact count rather than any meaningful problem.
Can we offer an incentive for opting in — a discount or free item?
Yes, and many venues do. Offering a small incentive — “Opt in for offers and get 10% off your next visit” — can meaningfully increase opt-in rates. The key GDPR consideration is that the incentive must not be the only reason the guest connects to Wi-Fi — the Wi-Fi access itself must remain available regardless of whether they opt in. The incentive for opting in to marketing is separate from the Wi-Fi access itself. Structuring it this way keeps the consent voluntary and therefore valid.
How long can we keep contacts on the list?
UK GDPR requires you to hold personal data only for as long as necessary for the purpose it was collected. For a marketing list, “as long as the contact remains engaged and has not unsubscribed” is a reasonable working standard, but best practice is to run a periodic re-engagement campaign and remove contacts who have not opened or clicked your emails in a defined period — typically 12 to 18 months. Fydelia records last-visit dates, which gives you an additional data point for identifying genuinely lapsed contacts who may be worth suppressing regardless of their email engagement status.
Ready to Start Building a List That Actually Works?
A verified, opted-in email list built from real in-venue contacts is one of the most durable marketing assets a hospitality venue can own. It does not depend on a social media algorithm, does not require advertising spend, and does not decay the way a purchased list does.
It does require Fydelia to be properly installed and configured — and Carden Hotspots handles that. From the opt-in wording on the splash page to the export into your email platform, every part of the setup is included.
Let’s start growing your guest list from day one
A short call is all it takes to understand your current setup and get the email capture flowing. Your next 1,000 opted-in contacts are already walking through your door — they just need somewhere to go.
Let’s Talk! Back to OverviewCarden Hotspots installs and manages guest Wi-Fi for hospitality venues across the UK. Powered by Fydelia.