HotelChatter

Tags: Hotel WiFi / Guatemala Hotels / WiFi Heaven / → All Tags

If a Hotel with Cold Water Can Have Free WiFi...

As we all know, the hotel world comes stocked with contradictions. Case in point: In the decidedly non-tourist town of Zacapa, Guatemala, exists a bare-bones bedpost called Hotel Torre Fuerte, where we stayed recently.

A few, uh, highlights: icy cold water spouting from the shower; a golf-ball-size hole on one wall (leading to lord only knows where!); a thin mattress dressed in thinner sheets. Oh yeah, and free wireless Internet.

Before we comment on the absurdity of a place that lacks hot water but provides the common courtesy of free WiFi, we should mention that Torre Fuerte must be doing pretty well, because they’re building a new addition (rumored to have hot water!). But like many hotels under construction, that’s still in the works — like, no roof or walls on half the building in the works, with laborers hammering sun-up to sundown.

So let’s recap. We have a hotel that’s part-finished, part cinder block, with cold water (seriously, did we mention how cold the showers were?!). Double rooms cost roughly $23. AND THEY STILL OFFERED FREE WIFI. Though we didn’t have our laptops with us — so we can’t give a decent appraisal on the quality of the service — we can affirm that we spied other guests watching videos on YouTube without hiccups.

If that’s not the best incentive for all hotels to offer free WiFi, we don’t know what is. Seriously, people, even third-world Guatemala has you beat.