Thanks for the tip! Exactly the info we were looking for when we posted on HN :)
I used a catch all DNS wildcard with a dnsmasq rule which I set up on a DD-WRT flashed router.
address=/#/192.168.11.2
That IP was the IP of my server. The nice part of that rule is that many people will type in google.com or something similar when they find your open wifi spot assuming they are connected to the web. The wildcard will resolve that the the IP of the local server and send them there automatically. That can be the landing page of the network that introduces things, provides links etc.