HotelChatter

Has to be the Hilton Arc du Trimophe in Paris.

The Hotel has outsourced their access to iBahn.

21.99 Euros per DAY (about $30) with No Discount for Long Term Stay or Diamond Honors members - I was there for the week.

It was cheaper for me to go the the Champs Elysee and get a Local Prepaid 3G USB wireless conneciton and access.

The Hotel is aware that this is a problm and said they plan to do something about it, email me, I can do a report, its a great hotel otherwise.

We're not the nickle-and-dime type.  We love free wifi.

Just stayed two nights at the Trump International in Sunny Isle (Miami). 300+ per night. WiFi is 9.95 per day. Inexcusable.

A small boutique hotel in the middle of the rice fields, yet with (fast) WiFi all over the premises (yes, also on the pool deck :-)

And it is free. As it should be.

Greetings from Ubud - Bali

http://www.sabandari.com/en/

I was in two different hotels and paid for wifi in my room.  I was at conferences at the hotels.  My room wifi (that I had paid for) did not work in the conference rooms.  The conference room wifi was separate.  That meant I had to go back to my room to do email, and could not look at it while I was at the conference, or look for documents mentioned by the speakers.

Very frustrating.

This isn't one one of the big chains, but it's only about an hour from NYC so I thought I would mention it.  

We have free Wifi in all public areas of the main hotel and all the other guest buildings.  

I built it back in 2004 and the coverage is far better than any other hotel I have ever visited.

Our next phase will be to have WiFi for all the outdoor areas of the property, including the 27 hole golf course.

The reason is because we found that the WiFi coverage inside was solid enough for walk around VOIP phones so our goal is 100% free WiFi everywhere.

Malcolm Waring
www.shawneeinn.com

The hotel advertised internet connection in rooms.  There was no wi-fi, and only after an hour or so of tinkering with my computer and my wife's by someone from the hotel staff did they say that the hard-wired connection was down because of pending installation of wi-fi.  In response to a comment I posted on a web site reviewing hotels, the manager said:

You are correct, we did not have our hard-wire internet connection for a short time. During your visit we were responding to our guests' request by re-wiring the entire hotel so our guests would have complete WIFI throughout the property. It is unfortunate, but true, that many times while change is in process there is some inconvenience to get to the desired result. Whether it is highway construction, a short detour or enhancing hotel amenities, while the change is in process, there will be some dust. In this case, the dust was in the form of no internest for a short period. I am deeply sorry that you were slightly inconvenienced for a short time, but was glad to hear that you were able to access the internet in our Business Center.

I wonder what he would have said if the bathroom didn't work while they were upgrading the plumbing.  What bothered me most was not just that the internet connection was out, but that they wasted all that time before coming out with the truth.

Gatlinburg, Tennessee:
Free WiFi internet is available at
The Gatlinburg Lodge at SmokyMountainViews.com
http://SmokyMountainViews.com/Wireless_Internet.html
(WiFi works well throughout cabin, on decks, sunroom, etc.)

It never ceases to amaze me that some large brands can have free wi-fi in their budget brands but charge the earth in their up market brands! Why?????

In this day and age of free wi-fi in many diverse outlets why do hotels still think that one will pay??? And to the ones that offer free wi-fi in the lobby...get real!

Long live Kimpton hotels who ask for a little loyalty (and deserve it!) and give you benefits...free evening drinks yadda yadda yadda....

Are not part of the Hyatt chain... Hawthorne is part of Hilton and Springfield is part of Marriott.

Guess I expected more from Hotel Chatter.

I guess I should take my own advice and proof-read.

   Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida has
over 23 hotel properties.
   They charge $9.95 a night for Internet access.
There are no other WIFI networks.

   It's about time WDW stops gouging it's
guests.

Thanks for the views - useful feedback. From our point of view in iBAHN EMEA, not all wi-fi is equal and we work to provide a business-grade service with highest levels of security for hotel guests that ensures your laptop hard drive stays fully protected. This is not the case with many wi-fi hotspots, where people can freely access the contents of your hard drive if they choose to. We also provide seamless, secure connections to corporate networks through our VPN services that ensure business travellers can access the data they need with complete peace of mind. Our 24/7 network monitoring and multilingual freephone support is also valued by hotels and guests. So "best vs worst" is not simply a case of "free vs for fee".

May 2010: Hotel Carillon in Haarlem, Holland. Wifi was slow.
Hotel Vijaya in Amsterdam, Holland. Blazing wifi.
Both of these are budget hotels. The prices include breakfast, all taxes, and free wifi.

So how should the major hotels charge for wifi? They should factor it into the room price. it should not be more than a dollar or two.

Travelers DO expect wifi these days because it is very valuable in doing research for an immediate outing or to check one's mail. I have found it useful for museum research and for directions. I don't become a wifi potato when I'm traveling...I'm more of a guerilla computer user--just use it when I absolutely need it.

But hoteliers could make a small, reasonable profit by simply factoring the wifi cost into the room cost and simply describe the wifi as "included in room price." Add maximum three dollars to the room price but not this $15 per day baloney.  200 rooms X $3 = $600 in one day...that is way more than the cost of wifi per day. That's a tidy profit!

Bandwidth in London is getting cheaper but is still expensive if you require enough to handle bandwidth hungry guests and business users.

One Hotel offering Free Wi-Fi is The Corus Hotel next to Londons Hyde park Corner.

Will keep you informed of other hotels!

The chart for Luxury Collection is incorrect - some properties offer free Wifi in the lobbies and other public spaces.

"Free Wifi. I cannot understand why hotels that cost $100/day provide free Wifi and hotels that cost $500/day charge you for it. When you couple this with the fact that the Wifi I'm paying for is slow, it makes me crazy."

http://www.stevecurtin.com/blog/2011/03/08/enchantment/

I just returned from a WiFi nightmare at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, CA. Realize where this is. This hotel is in Silicon Valley, within three miles of Yahoo HQ, McAfee HQ, Intel HQ, Verisign HQ, Google HQ, and hundreds of other high-tech companies. It's attached to the Santa Clara Convention center and the Techmart. One might expect that WiFi would just work. No.

Until a few weeks ago, this hotel had T-Mobile WiFi. Two weeks ago, they threw out T-Mobile and put in their own in-house system. Not only do they charge far more than T-Mobile, at about $15 per day per device, but there is no WiFi in conference rooms unless the conference pays for it. The conference I was associated with was quoted $1000 per day per conference room for WiFi. (This is apparently discounted to $500 if you order in advance.)

Demos wouldn't run. Presenters couldn't present. Convention registration couldn't accept credit cards. This being Silicon Valley, within hours attendees had brought in enough phone tethering devices and WiFi boosters to bypass the hotel's system. This was expensive, wasted time, and we had better things to do.

If you have to stay in that area and want a hotel with a clue, consider the Avatar Hotel down the street.

I'm going on a two week family vacation to Fuerteventura this summer, and the hotel does not only charge you 10 euros per day, but the WiFi access is only available in the lobby area... How ridiculous!

Hi gardenia. Hope life is treating you well. Things are well with me. Have two off days and I'm expecting a few nice things in the mail in the next few days--my Logitech Squeezebox Boom, my cross stitch supplies, and my first issue of Just Cross Stitch should be in the mail shortly. I will be working on my Blooming Skull cross-stitch later tonight. <a href="http://promocjebukmacherskie2011.com/bonusy-bukmacherskie.html">bonusy bukmacherskie</a>

Hi everybody,
In Italy, the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees in Stresa, on the shore of lake maggiore is one 5 star hotel that offers FREE wifi to the guests .
The service is avalaible in the hotel's lobby. You can surf for free sipping an Hemingway special (the house cocktail)