The Roam will need to be set up on wifi first, before you can use it for bluetooth. You could do this by using two phones, one providing the network and the other one for the Sonos app. Hotel or company networks usually do not allow devices to “see” each other on the network so they probably won’t work for this set up.

Thanks for that.

What a ridiculous design in my opinion. I don’t have 2 phones either lol.

Makes the sonos speaker absolutely useless to me right now!

You’ve not bought just a bluetooth speaker, but a speaker that can be part of a wifi multiroom system, that also does bluetooth. As such there’s a bit more to setting it up then with just a bluetooth speaker.

There’s no one you could do the set up with, using their phone for just a couple of minutes? If you install the Sonos app on their phone temporarily and use your phone for wifi it won’t use their connection for updates of the speaker.

Still a strange design imo. Bluetooth should just work from the get-go. Why does it fist need a setup via WiFi just to play over Bluetooth? 

This is not what i would call "effortless listening". 

I do not see it as a strange design. The Sonos system requirements for all their available products has been available online for as long as I can remember. It pays to read these things before making a purchase decision. The simple fact you own a Roam already should have made you aware that the computerised product first needs adding to your Sonos account/HH, which in turn is linked to your general location and the streaming audio services that are available to your local area. The Bluetooth connection is not actually its primary audio source, but somewhat secondary to the little speakers main capabilities.

What I would find strange, is anyone purchasing such a complex speaker with all its computerised capabilities and only ever using it as a Bluetooth RX device. There are much cheaper ‘almost throwaway’ products that can cater for just that limited functionality. You have purchased a product that far exceeds that limited market.

@Ken_Griffiths i am not the OP so part of your post isn't for me.

I’ve seen $10 Bluetooth speakers on convenience store checkout pegboards. This would probably satisfy your current, emergency need. Adding a  travel router would be a more general solution. Note that the Bluetooth only speaker will not automatically have access to any of your music services.

You are missing the point here, I have many sonos products at home and love them all. However, this scenario is different as I am away from home and I just want to use my newly purchased sonos roam as a bluetooth speaker while away from home. Yes, I assumed it would work just like any other bluetooth speaker, plug and play out of the box, obviously I was wrong. No biggy, I get that when I get home I can sort it out, but I should not have to borrow someone else phone to get my speaker to work as a bluetooth speaker out of the box, not really user friendly now is it.
Wont forget my sonos speaker next time :)

I agree bluetooth only speakers are easier to use, needing almost no ste up. Without knowing the ins and outs of the Sonos soft- or hardware I can’t say if it is even possible to make “Bluetooth (….) just work from the get-go”. I suppose Sonos would have made it so because if they could have, because there are more complaints about this.