Most Hotel WiFi Fees Can Be Avoided Before You Arrive
The surest way to avoid hotel WiFi fees is to book a hotel or a room rate that already includes Wi-Fi, or to join the chain’s free loyalty program, which often unlocks free standard Wi-Fi. If you do end up paying, you only need to sign in once: connect your Windows laptop, then share that connection with your own phone, tablet and the devices that can’t open a hotel login page.
Download Connectify Hotspot free to share a hotel connection from your laptop once you’re signed in. The steps are further down.
Five Ways to Avoid Paying for Hotel WiFi
1. Check the hotel’s internet policy before you book. Booking sites list Wi-Fi under amenities, and the hotel’s own website usually spells out its internet policy under amenities or fees. Look at any resort or facility fee too. Wi-Fi is often bundled into it, so you may already be paying for it in the room price.
2. Join the loyalty program. Several large chains, Marriott, Hilton and IHG among them, give free standard Wi-Fi to loyalty members, usually when you book directly with the hotel. Joining is free and takes a few minutes.
3. Use the free tier. Many hotels offer basic Wi-Fi free and charge only for a faster “premium” tier. Basic is often enough for email, browsing and video calls. Try it before you pay to upgrade.
4. Ask at check-in. If Wi-Fi was advertised as included, or you’re staying several nights, ask the front desk. Some hotels waive the fee when asked, and lobbies often have free Wi-Fi even when rooms don’t.
5. Use your phone’s data. If your mobile plan includes hotspot data, your phone can cover light use for a short stay. Check how much hotspot data your plan gives you, because streaming uses it up fast.
Sign In Once and Get All Your Own Devices Online
Hotel Wi-Fi almost always sits behind a login page where you accept the terms or type your room number and last name. Phones and laptops show that page. Game consoles, Fire TV, Chromecast and Roku sticks, Kindles and smart speakers often can’t, so they never get online.
The fix is to let your laptop do the sign-in. Connect the laptop to the hotel Wi-Fi, sign in on its browser, then use Connectify Hotspot to share the laptop’s connection as a new Wi-Fi network. Your other devices join that network like any other, with a password you set, and never see the hotel’s login page.
Some hotels charge per device or limit how many devices each room can connect. If yours does, check its terms before you share. Many hotels charge per room or per stay, and in that case sharing with your own devices is fine.
Travel Wi-Fi
One hotel login, all your devices, through Connectify Hotspot
Hotel Wi-Fi usually asks for a room number and a surname on a browser page before a device can get online. Connectify Hotspot lets one Windows laptop do that sign-in and share the connection with the other devices you travelled with.
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The sign-in page
Hotel networks hold new devices at a browser login page until someone fills in the form.
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Devices that struggle with it
A Kindle or a smart speaker has no browser for the login page. Consoles, streaming sticks and handhelds often fail to load it, or lose the connection when the hotel login times out.
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One gateway instead
Your Windows laptop signs in once and becomes the gateway for your other devices. They join the laptop's hotspot, so the login page only has to work on the laptop.
Hotspot Lite, the free edition, runs in 60-minute sessions, so on a long stay you start it again now and then. PRO removes the time limit. If your devices stop getting online, the hotel login has timed out: sign in again on the laptop. If the hotel charges per device, check its terms before you share the connection.
For 64-bit Windows 10 and 11
How to Share Hotel WiFi from Your Laptop in 5 Steps
First connect your laptop to the hotel Wi-Fi and sign in on the login page in your browser. Then share it:
- Download and install Connectify Hotspot on your 64-bit Windows 10 or 11 PC.
- Open it and choose Wi-Fi hotspot.
- Under Internet to share, pick the connection you want to share: Wi-Fi, Ethernet, a VPN or a phone plugged in with USB.
- Set a password. Turn on Block ads if you want lighter pages on every device.
- Click Start hotspot. Devices join by scanning the QR code on the Hotspot screen, or with the network name and password, like any other Wi-Fi network.
Connectify Hotspot 27 runs on 64-bit Windows 10 (version 1703 or later) and Windows 11. On a Windows 7 or 8 PC, use Connectify Hotspot 2021 instead: see our Windows 7 and Windows 8 guides.
Keep Your Devices Connected for the Whole Stay
Hotel logins expire, often after a day or at checkout time. When your devices stop loading pages, sign in again on the laptop and they come back on their own.
On laptops with Modern Standby, Windows stops the hotspot about 10 minutes after the screen turns off. Keep the screen on while you stream to the TV.
If the room has an Ethernet port, plug the laptop in and share the wired connection over Wi-Fi instead. A wired connection is often steadier than the hotel’s Wi-Fi.
You can see every device on your hotspot and switch internet access off for any one of them, free. Ad blocking works for every device too, which helps when the hotel connection is slow.
For device-specific help, see our guides for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Fire TV Stick and Chromecast on hotel Wi-Fi.
Available for Windows 10 and 11