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HotelChatter's Annual Hotel Wi-Fi Report 2010
Ant writes with this excerpt from an annual review of wireless access for hotel guests: "This year marks HotelChatter's sixth annual hotel Wi-Fi report. Over the years we've documented the progression of hotel Wi-Fi, from blatant disregard, to price-gouging for Wi-Fi access, and reliable Wi-Fi for loyalty program members, through guests taking matters into their own hands with wireless laptop/notebook cards and 3G access. A year ago, we thought guest demand for free, reliable, hotel Wi-Fi might just go away, thanks to 3G, but today, a growing number of hotel guests not only demand the hotel they book have proper wireless access, but most will consider not staying at a hotel that can't meet their basic access needs. That's right, Wi-Fi is a make or break amenity for many hotel guests that can sway booking decisions — and that isn't going away."
Went to Disney this year. Not only did Buena Vista Suites charge $10 a day for wifi, the speeds were only 1 megabit down (~150 kBps) while my 3G iPhone offered a bit over 2 megabit.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
I stayed at a Hilton recently, and they wanted something like $16 PER DAY for WiFi access in the room. I could almost stay at Motel 6 for that, WITH free WiFi there. It's because they're aimed at business travelers, who don't care what the bill to their company is. I won't stay at a Hilton again, if I have a choice.
I find it ironic and more than a little insulting when certain hotels (ones that typically charge high room rates) try to gouge an insane amount of money for wifi from travellers when free wifi is all but the nearest coffee shop away. Why do these places, many of which cultivate an air of "our service separates us from the other rabble", treat their customers with such contempt when it comes to wifi? One would think they would do anything to keep what business they have and actively work to get more customers (especially when just about every small mom and pop B&B has free wifi!).
ps. Hyatt Regency Vancouver, I'm looking at you! (benefit of the doubt: that was a couple of years ago)
The most expensive hotels, are the ones most likely to have for-pay wifi. At rates of like $10-$15 an order of magnitude more expensive then a wireless or landline connection for your house. Does anyone know a good pre-pade type 3G data provider?
Domestic roaming is included in most 3G plans.
International roaming, of course, is a complete racket.
The ______ Agenda
This pretty graphic is a nice summation of the article and can be used as a cheat sheet.
I have no documentation of this, but there's always been speculation in my company that the classier hotels don't give internet for free because either a) their clients will pay or b) the business that is paying for the room will pay. This is evidence of the observations but not the causation.
The funny thing I've noticed is, the cheap motels (Motel 6, Super 8, Econolodge) pretty much all offer decent WiFi for no additional charge - even the little mom-and-pop motels are offering free WiFi.
On the other hand, the big boys - the Sheraton's, the Hiltons, etc. - that I've stayed in all either a) have no WiFi at all, just wired Ethernet into a DSL-like system running on POTS cat-3 wiring (and often only for pay) or b) have WiFi but charge you for it.
It seems to me the places where you are staying on Other People's Money (places that cater to business travelers who expense the trip) are gouging on WiFi, the places where you are staying on your own dime all recognize WiFi as a competitive point.
I know that when I am traveling on my own money - you don't have free WiFi, I don't stay with you if I have a choice, and I almost ALWAYS have a choice.
www.eFax.com are spammers
I don't much care about wifi. I bring an airport express with me... But I refuse to pay for internet connectivity in any hotel. period. I once stayed at the BirgerJarl in Stockholm and was checking my IP address and lo-behold, I was handed an IPv6 address! Next time I went through the lobby, I mentioned how impressed I was to a lady at the counter and she replied that if I liked, she could give me an IPv4 address instead and to just let her know ...
I recently stayed in a Marriott that charged $12.95 a day (noon-to-noon) for Internet and long distance calling. I took my Pre, fired up Mobile Hotspot and went 'FU' to the hotel. In these days of free ubiquitous Internet, it is offensive that any place charges for Internet access, whether it be wired or wireless.
Hotels, in general, are for suckers in my opinion. If you're planning a trip, go to www.couchsurfing.org, make yourself a profile, meet some cool people while you travel, stay in the area for relatively cheap and/or free, and chances are, your host will be able to provide internet that you don't have to pay for. Of course, for business trips and the like, that kind of thing may not work out. However, I've often found that corporate overlords dictate hotel choices when flying for business anyways so its not like you get to make the choice based on internet or any other thing that you value.
Also, hostels are awesome. We should open some more of those in the States.
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
huh. Apparently I'm getting screwed.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
We did a West Coast road trip this year and stayed in hotels ranging from 5-star Best Westerns to 2-star Motel 6's (um, Motels 6?). Consistently the Motel 6's had much better Wifi (e.g. faster, more secure, and better signal). Where most of the higher end hotels must have had a single WAP for the entire building. Not to mention most of their WPA passcodes were , whereas the Motel 6's gave me a one-use card with a unique passcode on it.
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
I travel quite a bit and especially in the United Kingdom the hotels are trying to gouge you for internet access but I must say bitterly complaining to the manager and asking if he similarly charges separately for power, water and sanitation often results in a lower priced plan.
UK hotels that typically try to charge 15 pounds/day but can be brought down to charge 15 pounds per stay.
Only one bastard thanked me for the idea to put a counter on the toilet flush. :)
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
What makes me wonder then is why such a disparity between hotels rooms and business/first class vs economy flights.
In hotels, it seems like the basic conveniences, as long as they charge you fractionally little enough for it, you won't mind paying in addition to whatever the room cost already was (~10% a day?). However on flights, the more you spend on your ticket, the more they will go out of their way to plant their lips on your butt as far as letting you board first, get cozy, have a free drink, check a bag for free, etc.
I guess the difference is that you're not getting two disparately priced rooms within one building in the case of hotels?
But it's still pretty damn ironic that those you pay more to, try to screw you over more in the hotel industry. Somewhere along the way apparently it seems image and prestige way overtook actual customer satisfaction and service.
You're right. And to go one step further, the concept of 'domestic roaming' doesn't exist in most countries anyway. A LOT of business travel is still domestic, especially in large countries like the US, Australia etc. Therefore I don't think the "hotel guests don't want to use 3G cause it's expensive" argument holds that much water.
I think the idea of 'domestic roaming' (for data or voice) is mostly a US thing where you have quite a few smallish/local operators. Every other country I've been to, phone providers normally cover the whole country. (Similarly the idea of 'long distance home phone service' as a service you purchase in addition to/separately from a local call service is also, AFAIK, an American thing ... elsewhere a phone company just connects you and that phone can call any number on the planet, although you may obviously still be charged differently depending on the distance of the call.).
International data roaming OTOH is as you say a racket. And a danger to unwary travellers, especially if your device likes to do a lot of random 'background' tasks that just use a few bytes here and there, but the roaming provider has something like "100 kB minimum session charge". That can rack up to thousands of bucks very easily. Turn off your 3G data completely when travelling people!
I was staying at the Renaissance in Las Vegas, booked for a week for a HP training class. Checked out after the first night when I realized that Wi-fi was $10/night. Where did I go? The Choice Hotel 2 blocks down the street.. room was quite nice.
How much did that cost the Renaissance? about $500 for the week....
I haven't stayed at a Mariott in years for the same reason.
Wi-fi is a basic assumption in my hotel choices today. I won't even spend the company's money on this.