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Hotels & WiFi: How Many Charge for Access?

rijiMacDij said:
In Australia the Telco's like you to feel priveledged just to have a connection at all, so the mentality is probably vastly different to the US.
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We stayed at two different hotels in Sydney. Both offered internet on the booking. Neither had it. Both apologized, or I should say apologised and said they'd had trouble and red tape with getting it installed. I was pretty amazed since both were **** hotels.
 
quagmire said:
DoubleTree offers free wireless. At least where I go. Plus, they have the best cookies. You get one for free when you check in. Yumm!
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If you go to Orlando and Universal Studios, do not go to the DoubleTree "Twin Towers" as they like to call it. It was bad. At the time, I was 13 and about 5' 10" - 5' 11", the ceilings were kind of low. Plus the service in the middle of the summer was pretty weak. We came in at 10:30P.M. (stupid bus driver) and whenever we got to our room, we had only one towel, and there were three of us. We asked for more, and the brought more wash clothes, but not towels. Ugh.. maybe they've changed since 2004, but do your research.

Also, if you are staying at the Disney Caribbean Resort, be prepared to pay $9.95 per night for an ethernet connection. It's expensive, but man was it fast. Then again, I do come from a dial-up connection. ;)
 
On business travel i usually stay at some sort of Mariott and they have always had free internet. I am also big on the free beer as well!
 
First off, may I offer the UK's apologies to all for the confusion over whether we are European or not - "we just don't know" is the problem. Me - I'm very pro - my next-door-neighbour is very anti......see what I mean?

Anyway, back to the plot. In the UK most hotels charge for wifi, period. There are exceptions but they are rare. I tend to stay at Holiday Inns (both normal and Express) which either have free access in the lounges and charge for room access through Swisscom or someone similar, or just don't have wifi.

Travelodge, bottom-end chain, don't have wifi. McDonalds have wifi but it is BT Openzone and you have to pay or have to have an wifi minutes account.

Generally the wifi providers still think that wifi is a revenue earner itself rather using it as a marketing advantage to tempt people in to spend money.

I always aim for Starbucks or Costa for my coffee as I have a BT Openzone account. They then pick up my money for food and drink. Other outlets who don't have wifi or charge a huge amount don't get me through the door.
 
I think some of you may have fingered the distinctions being made at hotel chains, at least in the U.S. -- business-class hotels/conference centers calculate that they can charge for Internet access because most of their guests aren't actually footing the bill. But I think all hotels need to attract customers, so it seems to me, charging $9.95/day for a service that costs them almost nothing "just because they can" is like charging extra for the water because all of their guests need to bathe. It comes off as customer-hostile. Put it this way: I won't be staying at any Hilton hotels in the future, if I can avoid it.

cognomen42 said:
First off, may I offer the UK's apologies to all for the confusion over whether we are European or not - "we just don't know" is the problem. Me - I'm very pro - my next-door-neighbour is very anti......see what I mean?
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I know. I've already had a stern finger-wagging along with the "we are an island" speech, for innocently suggesting that Britain was part of Europe. ;)
 
IJ Reilly said:
I know. I've already had a stern finger-wagging along with the "we are an island" speech, for innocently suggesting that Britain was part of Europe. ;)
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Who was that? Britain is as much a part of Europe as Germany or Italy as far as I'm concerned :confused:
 
Sorry guys, I should have left well alone!

I really don't want a new thread on the ins and outs of the EU as I'm not well anyway! :D
 
lower scale hotels = free wifi/ethernet
higher scale hotels = $$$$$$$$$$

often -- however -- if you are a member of the 'free rewards' program
(choice privileges, hilton Hhonors, starwood rewards prgm....etc)

you get free 'net

just my experiences-- you can always call first
 
zap2 said:
Last hotel I went to had free Ethernet , no Wi-Fi(as far as I knew, didn't bring my laptop{bad idea})

They also had a public Dell PC w/ IE for anyone to use. I went on and downloaded FireFox...and it let me! Why would a "public"(basicly) computer let me have Admin access?


I should have installed Linux :) Alas I didn't have my LiveCD:p
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Heh heh, I know. I travel a lot (dad takes the family with him :rolleyes: ) and most of the time, the hotel's have PC's that are free to use in the lobby or elsewhere. And 9 out of 10, I can install Firefox, AIM, and iTunes on them, and I'm set.:cool:

And if not, I can usually just plug in my flash drive and run them from there!:)
 
IJ--

I travel occasionally--perhaps 4-6 times a year. I've seen the same thing that others have noted--less expensive hotels seem much more likely to offer free web access, whether wired ethernet or wifi. Strikes me as ironic, since I agree all hotels need to attract people to stay at them. With a couple of exceptions, I don't quite understand what an expensive hotel (Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, etc.) offers over a less expensive one--Clarion, Holiday Inn Express, Hampton, etc. But that's probably another thread!
 
IJ Reilly said:
I just got back from staying three nights in a fairly upscale hotel owned by one of the world's largest and oldest hotel companies. I was dismayed to discover that this hardly inexpensive hotel had no complementary WiFi anywhere in the building. They charge $9.95 a day for access. I even called the desk to verify that this was the case. I may not travel as often as many people, but this is the first time in several years I've encountered a hotel with this policy. I've been provided with free WiFi access at even relatively inexpensive hotels and motels, if not always in the room, then somewhere on the premises. I've come to expect it. Is this wrong or unrealistic?

For regular travelers: Do many hotels still insist on charging for access?
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Everywhere I've stayed lately has charged for wifi - or any internet access for that matter. Now, this may be a function of the "high dollar / low dollar" hotel deal, but I think more and more hotels are going to find that if they don't offer free wifi, people will simply start going elsewhere.

My company doesn't pay for my wireless connection unless there is a need for me to be doing work on the road, so I don't pay for it myself. I'll just go find a local coffeehouse or somewhere similar that has free wifi.

On a side note, my local Vons has a sign up stating that they will have free wifi connections soon. I'm curious how that will work, since they also contain a Starbucks - and Starbucks charges for their wifi.
 
It depends on the hotel. I mainly stay at hotels that cater for conventions. They know that most people that are staying there are not tourists. Businessmen with an expense account. The last time I had to pay it was 25 Euro for 24 hours. The hotel I was a couple of weeks ago had an open WiFi network, no charge.
 
Holy thread resurrection month.

I travel quite a bit for work. The high end hotels all charge (Marriott, Hilton, Sheraton) while their more business oriented brands (Residence Inn, Courtyard, Garden Inn, Hampton Inn) offer it free.
 
I scowl at the US$9.95 for 24 hour rates, but a couple months ago in Tegucigalpa a Clarion wanted to charge US$12 a day. No way, José. And it was just a 3 Star, depending on cloud cover. :p
 
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