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How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

March 12, 2008 at 11:11 AM | 7 Comments

Earlier this week we popped into an Atlanta Bread Company outlet for a quick lunch in Nashville, TN. The staff greeting was warm, the food was tasty, and signs prominently pointed out a nice feature: free WiFi.

Three people were pecking away on their laptops and the one sitting closest to us was staying at the nearby Loews Vanderbilt Plaza. "Here I buy a $7 lunch and check e-mail for free," the chatty business traveler noted. "If I log in at my hotel, where I'm already paying $230 a night to rent a room, they want me to cough up another $10 plus tax. It's insane."

Which brings us to this pair of screenshots we grabbed while staying at the Danubius Hotel Astoria in Budapest, Hungary. Here they actually rub it in your face that you have to pay more for the exact same service when you are at a fancier hotel.

It's about $23 for 24 hours if you're in one of their 3- or 4-star hotels--already a princely sum--but a jaw-dropping $45 if you staying in a 5-star hotel instead. For the exact same connection through the exact same 3rd-party service. That's a lot of goulash!

Call it reverse economics: the more you pay per night, the more they want you to pay for WiFi as well. Meanwhile, guests staying at the Danubius Hotel Astoria can just walk a block to an Internet cafe and pay $1.50 to check e-mail for an hour.

The business traveler staying at any Loews hotel can get in his rental car and get free Wi-fi at not only Atlanta Bread Co., but also the neighborhood McDonald's, Panera Bread, Alpine Bagels, Captain D's, Bruegger's, or even Krystal. So then eating in the hotel makes even less sense, and forget room service while surfing the web in your room.

Dear hotel execs, this practice has got to go. Wi-fi is the new hot water. We expect it to work and you make us hate your brand every time we have to pay extra for it. Ignore this and you lose, over and over again.

: / / /

Author Photo: Tim L. by Tim L.

7 Comments

Return to » How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

  1. juliana

    HotelChatter
    March 12, 2008 at 12:56 PM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    There is some seriously delusional thinking on hotels part when it comes to charging guests for wifi. I have heard some hotel execs say wiring the hotel for wifi (esp. if it's a huge hotel or an old building) is expensive so they need to recover that cost.

    But i've been in a lot of old buildings and huge hotels that didn't charge for wifi (city club and a few kimptons and jdvs come to mind) so it can't be THAT expensive. in short, it is just another way to nickel and dime the guests.

    yet what really really really ticked me off is that the GM of the newly renovated Plaza Hotel where rooms are $1,000 a night mentioned to USA Today that despite saying earlier they would have complimentary wifi, they decided to charge $14.95 a night simply because their competitors charge for wifi.

    note: none of their competitors were charging either the same jacked-up room rates or internet access rates.

    this is just pure greed on the hotel's part. argh. i am so frustrated. i am going to start an online petition! whose coming with me?  

  1. djk

    HotelChatter Member
    March 12, 2008 at 2:46 PM




    36 Euro a day

    for ETHERNET!!! at the Bristol in Vienna. Of course, it's a "Luxury Collection" Starwood, so if you were expecting less, you should know better by now.

  1. mytwocents

    HotelChatter Member
    March 14, 2008 at 5:04 PM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    i'm there with you j. and i have a cost-savings idea for hotels. substitute freee AM newspapers at our door for free wi-fi and let us read 'em online.

  1. GB

    HotelChatter Member
    March 17, 2008 at 6:55 AM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    I don't mind paying for wifi when it is a fast and secure service.. I have seen too many examples of laptops hacked through insecure wifi.

  1. juliana

    HotelChatter
    March 17, 2008 at 5:13 PM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    really? would you care to share some examples? you can email me if that's easier (julianaAThotelchatterDOTcom)

    [ Parent ]

  1. Tim L.

    HotelChatter Member
    April 13, 2008 at 2:26 PM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    I just spent a week in Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende in Mexico, at the very best hotels in each town, and didn't have to pay anything for WiFi or ethernet. Two of the buildings were close to 300 years old, so I don't want to hear the crap about the wiring being expensive. As one of the GMs there said to me, "When we first opened we charged for it and we got more angry comments about that on the room surveys than anything else about our hotel. We have happier guests now."

  1. markj

    HotelChatter
    April 13, 2008 at 6:43 PM




    Re: How Much Longer Can Hotels Charge for WiFi?

    So true.

    For years I have been telling any hotelier that asks -- give reliable wifi away for free an many guests will forgive a couple small service mistakes during their visit.

    Free reliable wifi = happy guests...or at least more tolerant guests.

    [ Parent ]

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