Connecting Apple Home Pod To Hotel WiFi
If you are like many of us, you’ve gone all in the Apple ecosystem. As part of the Apple ecosystem they offer an entire line of home entertainment products, including the Apple TV, HomeKit and Homepod.
But what if you want to take these smart home comforts with you when you travel? Unfortunately, Home Pod like so many devices isn’t designed for travel. You may run into a number of configuration issues trying to take your Home Pod with you to a hotel, Airbnb or RV park.
The directions below will work with either the Apple Home Pod or the Apple Home Pod mini.
Challenges Connecting An Apple Home Pod To Hotel WiFi
There are a number of challenges you face trying to connect your existing Apple Pod speaker to the hotel WiFi. First, most hotels WiFi networks have what is known as a captive portal. Second, Apple Home Pod does not provide an easy way to switch a speaker to a different WiFi network. So every hotel, Airbnb or RV park you visit you’ll need to completely reconfigure the Apple Home Pod speaker.
What is a Captive Portal?
Captive Portals are the popups you get that prompt you to login or provide additional information prior to using the Hotel, AirBnb or other locations WiFi. Captive portal are extremely common at hotels, as most regular business travelers know. In fact very few hotels allow you to use their WiFi without accepting terms and conditions, entering a room number and name or an additional password.
Configuring Your Apple Home Pod Speaker For Hotel WiFi
Assuming you can get past the captive portal, or in the case where your hotel or Airbnb doesn’t have one, the next challenge is you’ll need to reconfigure your Apple Home Pod speaker for the WiFi network.
These instructions assume you have an iOS device already configured for the hotel WIFi network. The instructions should be similar for Airbnb or RV park as well.
1. Unplug the Home Pod for at least 5 seconds (this may already be done if the power was off while traveling to the hotel)
2. Plug the Home Pod back in and wait 5 more seconds
3. Touch and hold the button at the until you hear multiple beeps
4. The Home Pod should announce it will reset. The reset process should take about 1-2 minutes.
5. Within Bluetooth range (under 30 feet, but as close as possible to be sure) touch setup on the popup screen when the phone detects the Home Pod device.
6. Setup the Home Pod including “transferring” the WiFi settings.
7. Extra Step That May Be Required: Look for the “Show WiFi” notification, click on it and note the “WiFi” address. You may need to provide this to hotel support for it to work.
For the average user this is a lot of steps. This is definitely not a series of steps you’ll want to take with each new hotel, Airbnb or RV park.
Better Solution – Travel Router
The better solution is to buy a travel router and bring it with you. A travel router will allow you to create your own WiFi network at any hotel, Airbnb or RV park. You connect the travel router to the hotels WiFi network and use your phone to complete the captive portal. From that point forward every device connected to the router you brought with you will be on the hotel’s internet, but it will be using your own network.
The advantage is that you won’t need to reconfigure your Apple Home Pod at all. And if you travel regularly you won’t need to do it at every destination. Plus, if you don’t have a dedicated Apple Home Pod you use just for travel, you can use the same WiFi network name and WiFi password you do at home. Then you won’t even need to reconfigure the Apple Home Pod speaker when you travel.
In addition to the ability to take your Home Pod with you, a travel router will let you use your laptop, phone and other devices, including travel streaming sticks or streaming device like a Roku or Apple TV in the hotel without needing to reconfigure them for each hotel, Airbnb or RV park.
Picking The Right Travel Router
If you travel regularly and are not highly technical, we’d recommend ensuring you find a travel router with an easy to use interface. Some travel routers have a highly technical interface and/or require technical experience to configure. So be sure to research the interface and ease of use before picking the best travel router.
Of course, here at Go Connect our travel router is designed specifically to be easy to use and for travel. A combination no other product can say.