Home network for AirBnB

denigor777 · 2 Apr 2023 at 12:18

Hi,
My sister-in-law lives and works at home, and has two separate on-site AirBNBs at the same place (next-door-dwellings).
They have a single ISP provider for their internet connection.
They need a network that meets their following requirements:

- Allows to define guaranteed bandwidth minimum, for download and upload to internet, for each of the two guests
- Allows minimum guaranteed bandwidth for their home use and for their office use.
So total of minimum guaranteed bandwidths for upload, and total minimum bandwidths for download, will together equal total ISP provided bandwidth (which is plenty)

- Allows guests to use additional (non-guaranteed) bandwidths, when it's available (not otherwise used)
- Allows home and office to use additional (non-guaranteed) bandwidth, when available. But at a higher priority than that available for guests.

They also want Wifi Mesh and would prefer separate SSID@s for each of the four described networks.
They can hard wire every mesh router/satellite node.

This is a sort of Quality of service solution that a business might use, I appreciate. Which is fine as it is really a business setup. Any recommendations?

Caged · 2 Apr 2023 at 12:56

Is each of the rented out residences an individual address? I'm not sure I'd bother trying to split one internet connection four ways (home, office, rental 1, rental 2). I'd put a connection into each of the rentals with its own network, probably use something like Meraki Go and then not have to worry about customers complaining about congestion.

visibleman · 2 Apr 2023 at 13:07

You can do prioritised QoS within Draytek's and create multiple networks for home/office and guests etc. But i would agree, congestion could be an issue depending on what bandwidth is available.

denigor777 · 2 Apr 2023 at 21:03

Caged said:
Is each of the rented out residences an individual address? I'm not sure I'd bother trying to split one internet connection four ways (home, office, rental 1, rental 2). I'd put a connection into each of the rentals with its own network, probably use something like Meraki Go and then not have to worry about customers complaining about congestion.

All are at the same address. It's a house with converted outbuildings for stats of typically 2 nights. Usual AirBNB stuff. The place has internet access already, but is shared across all. It's remote so internet access is via FWA. Specifically this is about avoiding multiple separate accesses and the cost that makes.

denigor777 · 2 Apr 2023 at 21:05

visibleman said:
You can do prioritised QoS within Draytek's and create multiple networks for home/office and guests etc. But i would agree, congestion could be an issue depending on what bandwidth is available.

Thanks, I will check out Drayteks. Congestion won't be an issue; all the service has to provide is a guaranteed minimum to guests, which is written in the AirBNB site. They can book knowing what their access limits will be.

Edit:. Wow the Draytek really looks to tick all boxes! It really is a small business network setup, rather than a well featured home setup. It's pricey, but it looks the best option so far. Thanks!

visibleman · 3 Apr 2023 at 11:51

denigor777 said:
Thanks, I will check out Drayteks. Congestion won't be an issue; all the service has to provide is a guaranteed minimum to guests, which is written in the AirBNB site. They can book knowing what their access limits will be.

Edit:. Wow the Draytek really looks to tick all boxes! It really is a small business network setup, rather than a well featured home setup. It's pricey, but it looks the best option so far. Thanks!

Worth looking at the GUI (Draytek have GUI demos on their website) as there is a bit of a learning curve setting them up compared to your average home router/firewall.
And worthing noting that WiFi range on Draytek's is far from terrible but it isn't top-tier; so whilst you can have multiple WiFi networks (5 max iirc on both 2.4 and 5GHz), you probably would be better off opting for a non-wifi model and then using Access Points (around the properties) on separate subnets and then QoS the lot.

The only question i would have is around whether or not you need to operate a captive portal, as i believe there is laws around requiring information on guests/devices, but i'm sure there's other forum members that have better knowledge on that.

Also worth looking at Ubiquiti (they do great WiFi products), Mikrotik (bang for buck but steep learning curve) and Meraki as @Caged mentions.

pepp77 · 3 Apr 2023 at 11:56

I'd go Meraki for this. Everything you want can easily be done as well as much more

Sparx · 10 Apr 2023 at 11:19

In its simplest form, isn’t this just 3-4 VLANs with their own WiFi SSID?

Guest WiFis can operate with a max bandwidth cap, say a % of max line speed. Leaving the rest for the main home/office?

E.g. If it’s a 1Gb line, set a 200Mb cap on guest WiFi so not all bandwidth can be taken. Leaves plenty for the home/office then.