June 2, 2007

Hotel Internet Acce$$

June 2, 2007, 12:09 PM | 10 Comments

I read John Allsopp’s post on the state of Australia’s wi-fi availability today and I couldn’t help but share his pain about how much certain hotels charge for Internet access. My recent experiences have led me to believe that (at least in Canada) the nicer the hotel you stay at, the more they’re going to charge you to use their connections.

Maybe I’m looking at this from the wrong angle, but the way I see it is that if almost every independent coffee shop that does $x amount of business per year can offer free wi-fi while you sip your $5 latté, shouldn’t the good hotels that do $xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx amount of business per year be able to offer at least a free wired in-room Internet connection while you pay your $200/night room fee and $30 for your buffet breakfasts?

In today’s economy where the Internet is such a part of our daily lives, why is it that hotels can get away with charging so much for this type of service? When I was in Vancouver back in February for Web Directions North, the Renaissance Hotel was charging (I think) $15.95/24-hours for its wired Internet connection. Fortunately, I was one of those that got in on the early-bird registration and one of the perks was free Internet access, so I didn’t have to pay. I couldn’t imagine myself paying $16 per day for the 6 days that I was in the hotel. If you do the quick math, that’s $96 for less than a week of Internet access. Once you add in taxes, we’re talking over a hundred dollars, and that doesn’t include all the other things that hotels over-charge for… which is pretty much everything.

A couple weeks back, Deb and I spent 2 nights at one of the nicer hotels in Niagara Falls. I brought my laptop along with me because I thought it would be useful to use as a research tool to plan day-trips, get maps, etc. I assumed that the Internet access wouldn’t be free, but I figured I’d bring it along anyways, just in case I was wrong. To my chagrin, there was again a $16 charge per 24-hour time period for access, but this time the hotel gave me the option of a wired or wireless connection… gee, thanks. I ended up not even turning my computer on for the whole time we were there, because looking around on Google Maps just wasn’t worth $16 a day for us.

In contrast, about 2 years ago we spent a couple of nights in a fairly average motel in the States for about half the price of what our nightly rate was in Niagara Falls, but they threw in free in-room wi-fi access. We were able to use the laptop to scope out the area and make daily travel plans, which was really nice because we didn’t know the area very well at all.

Now, I don’t really travel a lot in North America – I think I stay in a hotel in North America about twice a year – but when I do I just can’t seem to bring myself to pay those kind of prices for in-room access. I can’t imagine how much it costs people who travel on a regular or semi-regular basis and need to stay connected. Sure, you can write it off as a business expense, but it’s still a lot of money and I just don’t see why hotels charge this much for something as cheap (relatively) as Internet access.

Is the answer as simple as “because they can?” Am I alone in my thinking that a hotel chain could benefit in a competitive market just by offering free Internet access in every room across their entire chain? Is there anything that we as consumers can do to change the status quo on this? I for one would be more likely to choose or explicitly search for a specific brand of hotel if I knew I was getting the little things for free.

Update: I should’ve posted this earlier because I’ve been seeing the ads for months, but in case you’re looking specifically for a nicer hotel chain that offers free Internet access, Hampton Inn Hotels offers free in-room access across their entire chain in North America.

Posted in: Technology