Over at Hotels Magazine, Associate Editor Adam Kirby boldly argued that Hotel WiFi should be free (um, because it should).
The gist of his blog entry was, essentially, "hey, it's 2008, and only 16% of hotels still charge for WiFi, so the rest of you need to get with it already," and he provided some perfectly reasonable suggestions for those stubborn hoteliers still holding out on the free WiFi.
We say he's right for a number of reasons, but we didn't expect the ferocity with which the aforementioned stubborn hoteliers would respond. They have descended upon the comments section of his blog to oh-so-generously give the Internets a piece of their (greedy) minds.
While we still think its Fd up that a treehouse in the Caribbean can offer wireless internet and a Ritz-Carlton or a Four Seasons in New York can't, overall wireless internet access is improving in hotels.
According to a survey done by the American Hotel & Lodging Association of 10,000 US hotels:
91 percent of responding properties now offer wireless Internet access, up from 35 percent in 2004.
Even better news, only 16 percent of the hotels survyed charge for wireless access which is down six percent from 2004. Meaning there are more places for us travelers to get free WiFi. Holla'!
We shoved Hotel WiFi Week 2008 in your face everyday last week and it's not quite over yet. We still have a major Hotel WiFi map to unveil, it's just taking some time to get it perfect.
But until that's done we want to give a shout-out to Motel 6 Hotels for offering up WiFi. Andrew Calvo lauded the budget chain for its always reliable WiFi and yesterday we received an email from a serious road warrior who gave big-ups to Motel 6.
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.
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.
Where: United States
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by Jenna
