Going online in hotels
p2p news / p2pnet:- Are you a travelling surfer who spends a lot of time in hotels? And if that’s the case, do you do as Tom Hill does?
He was spotted, “ensconced with his laptop at a Panera Bread bakery-cafe in Milwaukee” because he’s is one of those who’s “being hit for Internet service at four-star hotels when you can get it free at lower-priced competitors, not to mention a growing number of public places and, for that matter,” writes Joe Sharkey in his New York Times column On the Road.
The backlash against charging for Internet access, hard-wired or Wi-Fi, has been building for years, “especially among younger business travelers who have been accustomed to free high-speed Internet access since college,” says Sharkey, going on to quote various readers who, like Hill, believe Net access is a basic and as such, should be free.
After brooding about paying Internet access in a four-star Atlanta hotel, Tom Nobles, “found that he could get a free Wi-Fi signal” in a parking lot.
But Sharkey also has a few words from Luke Mellors, “the technology director at one of the world’s most stylish hotels, the Dorchester in London” which wants what it would cost for a stay in some motels for a day online.
The Dorchester demands, and gets, £18.50 (about $33) a day for high-speed Internet service.
According to Mellors, free access would entail a rise in room rates, but only 35 percent of the guests use the Internet and, "We don’t want to penalize the majority for the needs of the minority”.
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See:-
On the Road – Resentment Flares Over Fees for Internet Access at Hotels, October 11, 2005
October 12th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
I work at a hotel where it’s only $3.99 for your whle stay. You can be there a day , a month or longer and it’s still only $3.99. So a word to the wise, check around, because there are hotels that don’t rip you off for internet access.
Robyn
October 12th, 2005 at 2:46 pm
I work at a hotel where it’s only $3.99 for your whole stay. You can be there a day , a month or longer and it’s still only $3.99. So a word to the wise, check around, because there are hotels that don’t rip you off for internet access.
Robyn
October 12th, 2005 at 3:48 pm
High-speed internet access is important to large percentage of travellers these days – especially business travellers. The availability and cost of the internet service is one of the first things we check in making any hotel reservation. It’s not just for email and VPN access to files at the office, but we use Skype to bypass those ridiculous long-distance telephone calling fees and access charges at high-end hotels. There’s nothing sillier than having to sit in the lobby or the parking lot of an expensive 5-star hotel to pick up your email because the in-room internet access is either grossly overpriced or temporarily out of service because the hotel doesn’t consider it important.
October 13th, 2005 at 5:47 pm
Internet Access should be a drawning card for hotels , like Pools Saunas, Cont. Breakfast ETC. If a Hotel or Motel does any kind of business at all, adding .25 or .50 per room rate would more than pay for installation costs , upkeep, and thier ISP monthly Fees. If you want to use Internet Access and feel you shouldn’t have to pay for it DON’T stay at the hotels that charge for it. As in another post making $3.99 sound not so bad. Lets use this IE. Travelers for a month staying 20 nights at different hotels. Lets see now , 20 x $3.99 plus tax of course @ average 8% = $ 4.31 x 20 nights = $ 86.20. Now that would likely be reading one e-mail from family and possibly sending one back per day. Thats $2.87 per e-mail. and approx. 15 minutes on line for the average person that is travelling. Add in the fact that you pay will pay to get on line and there is no mail for you. Sounds really expensive to me. I look for good hotels that offer free on-line service , as part of thier over-all service.