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Marriott to Add Wi-Fi in 400 Hotels
matt writes "InfoWorld reports: Marriott aims to provide WLAN (wireless LAN) access at 400 hotels in Germany, the U.K. and the U.S., the company said. It will collaborate with wireless service provider STSN to offer the service in hotel lobbies, meeting rooms, restaurants and other public spaces, complementing its current in-room high-speed access."
I think he meant "conventional" and I agree with him. Its still only in major cites for the most part. I did see them wiring up one of their more out of the way hotels in MD not long ago. Still some work to be done though.
Sometimes you're sitting in the bar chatting to work colleagues and making notes for a presentation the next day.
... this way you can just meet people in the bar of the Marriott, update your files and then go back to your cheaper hotel somewhere else!
Sometimes you just want to open your PDA and check your email without having to use slow and expensive cellphone connections.
Sometimes it's nice to be able to catch up on all the latest information over breakfast before heading in to the training class
And sometimes it's nice to be able to sit next to the pool and listen to classic comedy, science fiction and drama on BBC Radio 7, while you're on the other side of the planet.
It's not something I'd use often, but WiFi is a standard and if it means I basically can just open my laptop/PDA and surf the web/read email/logon to my corporate VPN and pull down the latest reports etc. without having to go hide in my room and spend time fighting with one of the several different "high speed" connections different places around the world offer (or not) then that would be great.
It's especially good in Europe where each country has a different phone socket so you either have to carry a bag of different adapters with you, or hope the hotel has phone handsets with a standard US plug for dialup