Introducing HotelChatter's 2008 Annual WiFi Report

A HotelChatter Exclusive

Our Annual WiFi Report will help you avoid having to use something like this when staying at a hotel.

It is time once again for one of our most popular features, HotelChatter's annual look at hotel brands with the Best and Worst Hotel WiFi offerings.

In 2007, we boldly stated that the hotel WiFi landscaped had reached an impasse. And this year, we are sad to report that again, there hasn't been much movement.

The same complex formula still applies when hotels consider offering internet. We are sure hoteliers and hotel general managers have some elaborate mathematical equation which they use but we'll just simplify it for you here:

If high room rate and/or luxury status, then no free WiFi.

Yes, luxury hotels continue to nickel and dime you for a service that could easily be rolled into your room rate or resort fee while budget hotels like Best Western and Holiday Inn have free working WiFi throughout. And don't even get us started on some hotels that are beyond fashionably late to the wireless party and only offer ethernet connections in rooms.

But don't despair. There is still some good news to share here and we're going to spend the rest of the week educating you about the Hotel WiFi Landscape of 2008.

So welcome to the first-ever WiFi Week on HotelChatter.

We're starting off with our Best WiFi Hotels followed by the Worst. We'll check in on the international WiFi hotel scene again and in a new addition, we'll be summing up all those faux-boutique hotel spin-offs from the big box chains that are targeted at the modern business traveler like Hyatt Place, Hotel Indigo, Courtyard by Marriott and the upcoming Aloft and Element brands from Starwood.

This year, we're even going to ask some hoteliers and general managers just why they offer free WiFi and how they do it. Or conversely, why they charge for WiFi and how do they sleep at night doing so. We're even going to throw in a Hotel WiFi Guide to a top U.S. destination by the end of the week.

And it's not just us covering WiFi here. Baby bro Jaunted is taking a closer look at Airport WiFi as well as ranking countries with the best and worst WiFi hotspots.

Of course, this WiFi report would never materialize without the constant feedback that you guys give us about the internet connections on all of your vacations and trips. So we want you to keep on joining in the discussion.

Feel free to send us any tips, questions or comments about our WiFi Week stories. Even better, just jump right in on the conversation under a story in comments.

Comments (2)

Return to » Introducing HotelChatter's 2008 Annual WiFi Report

Great - I can't wait to hear the stories...

I hope there's a name-and-shame report on those hotels who charge a fortune for WiFi access ... and then after you type in all the silly codes and flex your credit card, their WiFi doesn't bloody well work!

Hampton is standardizing their internet including the hardware and main line. They are installing Cisco equipment and mandating it brand-wide.

Now that's is awesome!

Costly to the owner by the way.

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