In continuing our Hotel WiFi Week here at HotelChatter we decided to ask some of the hotel groups that made our Best Hotel WiFi list just why they have decided to offer complimentary internet for their guests.
In our Best WiFi Hotels 2008 report we stuck to large chains and hip boutique hotels but there's actually a whole bunch of other hotels that are offering their guests complimentary WiFi and we thought they deserved a shout-out too.
· The Setai: The Setai is a ritzy South Beach property where rooms can cost up to $1,000 a night in high season. Fortunately, unlike some other luxury hotels, the Setai lets you surf the internet for free in every corner of the hotel including by the pool. · The James Chicago: The James offers guests complimentary WiFi in all of its 297 guestrooms as well as remote printing through a wireless network. · AKA Hotels: This upscale extended stay brand offers complimentary WiFi in the rooms. · The Marco Island Marriott: Now there is a charge for the WiFi here at a cost of $12.95 a day but the wireless signal reaches all the way to the beach. We admit we'd actually pay money for that. · White Barn Inn: This Maine retreat is small with only 29 rooms but it has complimentary WiFi throughout. · The Regent Palms Turks & Caicos: Another luxury property that's decided to offer complimentary WiFi for its guests. · The Curtis: This Denver hotel near the 16th street mall has free WiFi in all of its 336-guest rooms. · The Stafford: Don't pay for WiFi in London. The Stafford offers it for free.
Know of a hotel with complimentary WiFi in the guestrooms or a network that allows you to surf while you are actually surfing, keep us connected.
This year we went very in-depth with our Annual WiFi Report so that we could give you a better understanding of the hotel WiFi landscape in 2008.
But even we have to admit that's a lot of reading to do. And if you're in a hotel today paying by the hour or paying by the day or furiously trying to jump onto the free WiFi network outside the hotel's club level, then you probably don't have time to read every last word.
Hence the 2008 Hotel WiFi Chart was born. Here we take the five major U.S. hotel chains--Starwood, Marriott, Hilton, Intercontinental and Hyatt-- and round-up the internet options across all their brands. We're keeping it simple by only listing for you where the internet is free, where you pay and where it's free in the lobby.
Our suggestion for getting free internet at any of these places? Join the hotel loyalty program. If you're a frequent guest at one of these major chains, joining the loyalty program may earn you complimentary internet during your stays although it varies from program to program and property to property. So does begging the front desk to let you have internet for free.
Now that we've squared away the Best and Worst WiFi Hotels stateside, it's time to look at what's happening abroad.
Baby bro Jaunted has continued its WiFi Week by publishing yesterday some helpful tips on finding wireless when traveling outside the U.S. and typically, you can always get some sort of access in a cafe.
But here we'll be looking at the hotels abroad where HotelChatter editors and contributors found or didn't find WiFi. We've been keeping tabs on the International Hotel WiFi scene all year long and unlike what's happening here at home, the Hotel WiFi trend seems to be improving in other countries.
For instance, we traveled to London and had complimentary WiFi in our hotel near Hyde Park. Also, several small UK-based chains have decided to give up WiFi for free to its guests. Over in Spain, Best Western continues to offer free WiFi and we even found out that there's WiFi in the Hilton in Cairo. Of course, it's at a fee of $7 but still, that's improvement.
Something that totally makes us melt? Radisson SAS hotel in Europe publishing a list of their hotels that offer free WiFi. Life is good again!
Keep reading for more of the Best and Worst International Hotel WiFi Report
Yesterday we told you where you can get working WiFi in hotels for free so today we must tell you about the hotels where the WiFi is definitely not free, possibly not working and perhaps is not even WiFi.
Yes, it's time for the Worst WiFi Hotels of 2008. Much like our Best WiFi Hotels list, the Worst rounds up the usual suspects who charge you for internet access as well as calls out a few other hotel brands that manage to fly under our radar in other years.
These hotels also make this list for other reasons beyond billing. Inconsistent WiFi policies across different properties and brands is irksome, meaning you will get charged at one hotel in New York but not at the same brand in Miami. So is offering free WiFi in the lobbies but not in the rooms.
Yet what probably gets our goat the most is that these hotels are charging for WiFi purely for profit. We've even got a letter from a general manager of a Four Seasons hotel who tries to explain why the hotel must charge for internet. Essentially, the reasons why are all about profit except they are just hiding behind the pretense of customer service and network support.
Since we know that other hotels out there can provide complimentary WiFi, these hotels listed below really need to step it up.
We kick off the first-ever WiFi Week with the Best WiFi Hotels of 2008. As we mentioned, there hasn't been much movement on the Hotel WiFi scene since last year. So rather than round-up our old standbys for the third time, we wanted to take a broader look at the smaller hotel chains that are offering complimentary WiFi to their guests.
These are hotels that we have personally visited ourselves over the past year and know for a fact that the WiFi is working, free and spectacular. We call these hotels Ready & Willing.
We've also listed a group of hotel chains that we've overlooked in past reports, either because they didn't offer free WiFi at one point or because we weren't sure how well their WiFi worked. But thanks to tips from readers we now know these WiFi truths to be self-evident. We say take a chance on them.
Lastly, we aren't going to let you peruse this list without telling you who has consistently been topping our Best WiFi Hotels list. These are our Tried & True hotels, places we book when free WiFi is a must.
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.
Considering that guests are paying top dollar for these luxury rooms (on average $400 a night), you would think free internet would be available. Think again.
Despite the fact that both budget hotels and numerous boutique/design hotel chains (some which command the same rates as a Four Seasons) offer free wireless internet, the Four Seasons brand is unwavering in their policy to nickel and dime guests for surfing the web.
Here a general manager at a Four Seasons hotel tries to explain why the charge is necessary.
There are several differences between Four Seasons and other local hotels who do not charge for internet service. Allow me to cite just a few.
· Four Seasons' hotel IT staffs or designated personnel are the first line of support to assist our guests. These employees will call the appropriate internet service providers on behalf of our guests to resolve their issues. During non-business hours, hotel IT staff can be paged to resolve emergency guest connection issues.
· In hotels where free HSIA is offered, there is no one from the hotel to assist guests with their connection issues. Guest are required to dial a 1-800 number to obtain support where, most often guests are likely to receive poor service from untrained operators. It is "use at your own risk" because the service is free.
· In Four Seasons hotels, guests can request higher bandwidth or setting up a virtual private network for their colleagues who stay in the same hotel. As well, Hotel IT staff will trouble-shoot guests' laptop PC configuration to resolve the connection issue. In hotels who provide free HSIA, no personal services will be offered.
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Four Seasons has established company standard for dedicated multiple guest internet pipes in order to provide effective guest services. We have adopted automatic fail-over multi-homing technology to ensure the ultimate up-time of the guest's internet connection, and we constantly audit and discuss the network management issues with all the service providers.
· In hotels that provide free HSIA, there are no dedicated guest internet pipes. Sometimes, they are even mixed with the hotel administrative internet usages. There is only a single network gateway to the service provider and no automatic fail-over to guarantee the network up-time.
In continuing our Hotel WiFi Week here at HotelChatter we decided to ask some of the hotel groups that made our Best Hotel WiFi list just why they have decided to offer complimentary internet for their guests. 
