International Hotel WiFi: Singapore's Better, But Not Great

1/10/2008 at 10:05 AM
Tags: Singapore Hotels, International Hotel WiFi

In contrast to oh-so-much of the rest of the world, the small but hi-tech country of Singapore is doing reasonably well in the WiFi stakes. And that makes us happy because, unlike other WiFi pioneers like Estonia, Singapore is a really useful hub where tons of travelers stop for a night or two, as well as being an interesting holiday destination in itself.

WiFi is rife in Singapore: a government plan has put thousands of WiFi spots across the city, which is of course relatively easy when your city (and country) are as small as Singapore is. The result is that there are also plenty of hotels that offer WiFi access, sometimes for free, although disappointingly not always in guest rooms.

At the Singapore Marriott Hotel, for example, which has recently been promoting itself as a destination for medical tourists, WiFi is available in the public areas and meeting rooms, but you have to settle for high-speed broadband in the guest rooms. We hate cables! The famous Raffles Hotel doesn't even bother to mention to prospective guests will have WiFi access or not: presumably we're just supposed to be dying to have a cocktail in the bar, like everybody wants to do at the Raffles.

One Singapore hotel that's not doing too badly is the Singapore Hilton, which offers free in-room WiFi access to guests in rooms from the Deluxe Rooms and above. Hopefully the rest of the Singapore hotels will be following suit--but if your hotel ends up being one without WiFi, just ask around and find out about all the other WiFi spots nearby, and you won't be long without a connection.

[Photo: besar bears]