Areca Lodge - Wi-Fi signal in rooms......

[markysparky]

Hi Lads

 

Areca Lodge is my preferred hotel choice but on my last couple of visits the Wi-fi signal in the room for my iphone has been terrible, almost non-existant.

 

Does anyone have any advice on parts of the hotel where the signal is stronger?

 

Unfortunately good Wi-fi is a must for me re picking up e-mails etc.....

 

If not, any recommendations excluding LK Renaissance as i will stay there for part of my trip anyway but i like Areca complex better with the 2 pools etc...

 

All advice gratefully received.

 

Thanks

 

MS.

[Nom-in-Thailand]

Which wing are you staying in? I stayed on the 1st floor in Ever Green wing and I had to go out on my balcony to get a decent signal. My room was right above the walkway to reception.

[RussB]

I stayed in Evergreen wing in September - no signal in room, but not too bad by the pool.

[Rodem]

Stayed in the Corona wing and had a weak WIFI signal

[dulole]

Three month ago I stayed 4 weeks in Areca tower. The signal was sometimes there but most of the time not, or so weak that you could not trust it in your room. Downloads toke 8 hours if at worked at all.

[Brianrich1]

Hi Lads

 

This is my preferred hotel choice but on my last couple of visits the Wi-fi signal in the room for my iphone has been terrible, almost non-existant.

 

Does anyone have any advice on parts of the hotel where the signal is stronger?

 

Unfortunately good Wi-fi is a must for me re picking up e-mails etc.....

J

If not, any recommendations excluding LK Rennaisance as i will stay there for part of my trip anyway but i like Areca complex better with the 2 pools etc...

 

All advice greatfully received.

 

Thanks

 

MS.

 

Areca has many wifi connections. I think they have one for every wing and building. I had to change mine sometimes depending on what part of the hotel I was in. I use an iPhone also. It did pick up multiple connections for wifi in Areca.

[allwet]

I stayed at Areca 9 months ago and had a pretty good signal that dropped a few times. If I'm really desperate, I'll just take my iPad and walk the halls until I come across the router.

[Otter's Pocket]

Whilst there's a thread about the Areca Lodge, I thought I'd ask a quick question. Do they provide beach towels for around the pool?

[Nom-in-Thailand]

Whilst there's a thread about the Areca Lodge, I thought I'd ask a quick question. Do they provide beach towels for around the pool?

 

Yes the sign a sheet saying how many towels your taking and your room number.

[Haggis McHaggis]

Do you get a local SIM when in Thailand or stay on your home country sim? I ask because if you can go local and if its just emails, phone and data packages are cheap and a good size data download. Last time I think I payed around 400 Baht for 1 month and 800mb download

 

When I am in Thailand I always get a local SIM and can tether my laptop off my mobile data connection quite easily if wifi is shit...and I have to say its usually 50/50 hit miss ratio at most hotels/guesthouses, and I get pretty sick and tired of having to always test a room before settling on a place.

 

Good luck mate.

[dc_publius]

If you are looking for good wi-fi in hotel rooms, you need to think about how wi-fi works, and how shared networks work.

 

Even within the same hotel and same room, one day things can be lighting fast and another day wi-fi may be unusable.

 

Firstly, people are sharing the connection. Depending on who is using it and what they are doing, quality of your connection is affected.

 

Secondly, it's wifi. There are dead spots. There are interference. You just never know.

 

In summary, it's pretty silly and pointless to say that place X has good wifi and place Y has bad wifi. That's just not how it works.

 

The best you can do is go up to your room before checkin, open up your laptop and test the connection. At least you know that you're not in a deadspot, and you know that the network is not being over-utilized by other guests.

[Evilfriar]

I'd disagree on one point with the above poster, it can depend on how many hotspots the hotel puts in. As an example I stayed at the Pattaya Bay Resort my last trip and they have a modem acting as a hotspot on the ceiling in the hallways approx every 10 metres. The wifi receptions was excellent even though my room was not right next to one of the routers. Sure it could slow down if 15 people were hammering the bandwidth at the same time but your right, can't do anything about that.

In Bangkok stayed at the Baron and they had far less routers installed, think I spotted only 2 in the hallway a fair distance apart, consequently the wifi was pretty ordinary, so there are things hotels can do to improve wifi IMHO.

 

Cheers

[willhaz74]

i stayed at the areca a couple of times internet was rubbish i ended up paying to go to the cafe down in the lobby,there are loads of good wi-fi connections around,go on to a search in google will tell you loads of places,soi lk has tons,

[casinoclub]

Use a portable router that's link to the wired connection.

[Revkev]

I use the lounge area outside the April Room in the Evergreen Tower. Never have a problem there.

[dc_publius]

I'd disagree on one point with the above poster, it can depend on how many hotspots the hotel puts in. As an example I stayed at the Pattaya Bay Resort my last trip and they have a modem acting as a hotspot on the ceiling in the hallways approx every 10 metres. The wifi receptions was excellent even though my room was not right next to one of the routers. Sure it could slow down if 15 people were hammering the bandwidth at the same time but your right, can't do anything about that.

In Bangkok stayed at the Baron and they had far less routers installed, think I spotted only 2 in the hallway a fair distance apart, consequently the wifi was pretty ordinary, so there are things hotels can do to improve wifi IMHO.

 

Point is, this is such an unpredictable topic that it's almost not worth asking.

 

I've stayed in hotel rooms right next to the router, but something was interfering with it and I had to move a few doors down to get better wi-fi.

 

You just never know until you try, which is the strategy I suggest. Ask to see the room to inspect it, bring a laptop, and do a wifi speed test. That is the only thing that will get you better results. And it still won't help you much when the whole system goes down at random hour and there is no one there to fix it/etc.

 

In general, I would say that most decent hotels around 1000 baht are "good enough" for most people. If you stay in cheaper places their wifi can be very questionable because those places skimp on everything pretty hard.

 

Also, d/l speed is usually good enough. But upload speed usually sucks. This is very important for some people. (Backing up your photos/videos somewhere else/etc can take forever.)

[Grinder]

I stayed in the Evergreen wing in April and could not get a wi-fi signal in my room which was on an upper floor, but could in the lobby.

 

On my last trip which I just returned from, I was in the Areca building on the 5th floor and had no problem. Overall I think it is a bit unpredictable.

[Woofiee]

I was also on the Evergreen wing back in May, third floor with an executive suite and I had fine reception of wifi in the room. I doubt the better room made a difference; probably just the luck of the draw..

[dupke]

Stayed in the evergreen wing upper floor. No signal on my iPad in room. Only on balcony. Made the it guy come over to room and check it. In the end he put an extra access point in my room to fix it.

[casinoclub]

Bring your own personal WiFi Router.  They go around US$15 and is great for travel especially if you have multiple devices (ie. iPad, SmartPhone, laptop, and friends over your room).

 

Save you the hassle of configuring all of your devices to the wireless and sometimes save you the hassle of having to login each time.

[olern]

Areca is a great hotel, but their WIFI is not good. When i stayed there they had to reset their routers atleast twice a day. So they need to upgrade their system

[Woofiee]

First time I was there the wifi was a bit spotty, but the hotel delivered a plug-in wireless router to my room and stuck it on the t-100. It's been fine since but it's well known in-room Areca wifi can have issues

[JonnyR]

Will be staying in Areca next month, looking like the Coruna wing. Are any of the rooms noisey at night?

[One hung low]

Will be staying in Areca next month, looking like the Coruna wing. Are any of the rooms noisey at night?

not bad at all, no problem.

[JonnyR]

Just read a review on Agoda about some construction going on at the rear of Areca and that the sounds of "pile-driving and pouring of concrete" begins at 9am.

 

Can someone confirm this is occurring and if it can be heard from Coruna standard rooms?