High end hotels need to stop charging for internet access
It may only be Wednesday but here at CD-Traveller towers, we already have our quote of the week. Take a bow US actor, Zach Braff. The Scrubs star - who has just finished appearing in his own play, All New People, at London’s Duke of York Theatre – said: “Charging for internet in a hotel room is like charging for napkins at a restaurant.”
We couldn’t agree more. The bank holiday weekend found me attending (yet another) wedding – this one in Hertfordshire. Did the hotel I ended up staying at, offer its customers complimentary Wifi? The answer (you can you see this coming a mile off, right?) is no. The next morning while nursing hangovers over a Bloody Mary fuelled branch, I asked friends who had stayed the night at neighbouring Hertfordshire hotels whether Wifi was included in their room bills. Again, the answer was a resounding no.
It’s not often I advocate following in America’s footsteps, but this is one of those occasions. I was fortunate enough to recently spend a fortnight in the US, staying in no fewer than six different hotels. All, bar one, included complimentary Wifi in their tariffs and even the lone offender permitted guests to surf the worldwide web for free in the lobby lounge.
Is there any reason why hotels in the UK, can’t do the same?
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Working in the oil industry I travel all over the world and these days at the majority of hotels I stay in wi-fi is complimentary. A peculiar exception is Brasil, where all the lower and medium hotels provide free wi-fi (or else no-one would stay there) and yet the more expensive hotels charge about £15 a day. When I have asked why in the big hotels the usual reply is “Most of our customers are wealthy or business customer who can either afford to pay for wi-fi, or if on business they need internet and their employers pay”.
I have noticed the same in UK airport hotels, the more expensive the hotel, the more likely you are to pay.
Same in the Philippines, cheaper hotels=free wi-fi, the really expensive ones, you pay.
In Singapore it varies from hotel to hotel without any real pattern.
To make my point, when I am bored, and booking an airport hotel, I will call one of the more expensive ones, make the booking and then just as I am starting to give my credit card number I’ll say “Of course you have complimentary wi-fi?” then, when they say it is another £18 – £25 per night I’ll thank them, cancel the booking and say “In that case I’ll stay at the ……. because I know they have free wi-fi”.
Maybe if more people did that and wasted 15 minutes of a booking clerk’s time,several times a day, they would stop this rip off.
Recently I stayed in Central London in a Holiday Inn and they wanted £22 per night for wi-fi. When I asked the receptionist “Why would I want to pay that much for wi-fi, when I can simply connect my smartphone to my laptop and use it to give me free 3G internet” she replied “Yes sir, most people seem to do that these days”. So it is obvious that the hotels do not make much money from this particular ripoff.
When I was staying at a large hotel near Blythe for 4 weeks whilst I was doing customer acceptance trials, a coouple of years ago, the hotel quoted me £16 per night for wi-fi. When I suggested a deal of £60 for the month so that they would make something out of me it was flatly refused. On that occasion, I went out and bought a 3G Dongle for my laptop for £30 plus a further £10 for a month of unlimited download access.
These days there is absolutely no reason why anyone should be ripped off for wi-fi, there is always a cheaper alternative.
Hi, this is my first time receiving this newsletter I found it most interesting that I felt I had to mail you.
I have been travelling to Mallorca for the last 4 years on holiday on each occassion I have been charge by the hotel for connection to WiFi,
I mean 15 euros for 5 days. I expect that is the norm for when your abroad, glad you do not over here. I travel on National Express frequently & on some coaches you can connect your laptop but have never done so, you may have to pay extra but I dont expect so.
The reason now why I travel to Mallorca each yeay as my late freind first introduced me to the island, so combine my holiday & tribute to him as he passed away at the start of this year.
Kind Regards Nicholas.