Guest users

  • 5 September 2018
  • 8 replies
  • 18388 views

I'm thinking of putting Sonos in a lake house we own but rent via VRBO. Is there a way for a guest user to use the speakers? We'd like to tell our renters they can use it, but not sure how they would.

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8 replies

If I were to do something like that, I'd give some strong consideration about leaving a tablet of some kind as a controller.

But the complexity that I'm not sure how to deal with is that so much of what Sonos does relies on my personal account with streaming company x or y. So if I was to check in to your VRBO, and set up my Apple account, for instance, then it would be there for the next person to use. You could potentially say "for non-subscription streaming only, like TuneIn, iHeartRadio" etc, but that seems to be challenging as well.

It's a complex issue, to be sure. I think it boils down to how often you're willing to be at the property in order to reset/log out of accounts that your guests end up leaving on the system. I don't think Sonos considered this edge case when developing their software 20 years ago (I'm throwing out a number, I don't recall when they specifically started/made choices about structure of the system).
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Main thing is that if you have Sonos at the house and you give the renter access to your wifi … then they can download the Sonos app and pretty much do whatever they want then. As Airgetlam says - you could ask them not to add their accounts or be sure to delete their service accounts before leaving.unless they want others using their account.

Of course if have new Sonos units the easiest thing is tell them to use Airplay with it for their services.

But you can't stop them from adding their services to the Sonos (which doesn't hurt anything but can be a problem for them if they leave their service on when leave).

But instructions would be:

Access the house wifi.

Download Sonos application on phone.

Choose connect to Existing system.

Done - they then have full access.
Thanks all. Maybe I'll try to remember to take my services off when we leave for a renter.
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I wouldn’t have your services on the Sonos system. You can still play your services such as Spotify directly from the Spotify app without having it on the Sonos list of services. You can still have your music services on your home system and not the holiday house one.
Can you play through Sonos without the Sonos app?
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Don’t think so. You can through the Spotify app but that would require WiFi and you’re likely to run into similar problems eventually
If you have any of the appropriate "receiving" speakers, you could use AirPlay 2, assuming an iOS or OSX device.
this is essentially my same scenario, however I have a little twist. I have setup a separate guest wifi network so that our guests can easily get access to what they need without full blown network access. Is there a way for me to allow the sonos to be recognized on both our "personal" network AND our limited "guest" network. Or am I required to use sonos on a single network and share my "personal" network credentials with guests in order for them to access the sonos system? Obviously I would prefer that we be able to access the sonos from either network. thanks for all your input.