Wi-Fi-way Robbery
You know all those $4.50 local calls you're no longer making when you stay at a hotel, thanks to your cellphone long distance plan? Well, the hotels are, perhaps, making up for them by gouging customers for Wi-Fi. New York Times business travel columnist Joe Sharkey writes:
A COUPLE of weekends ago, I stayed at a Hyatt Regency in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., while attending a trade show. Cost for the room for two nights: $411.26. Added cost for high-speed Internet service: $12.95 a day.O.K., a friendly "customer satisfaction" person at the front desk removed the Internet charge after I called down to complain about that and a few other things. But $12.95, when most of us resent paying even the usual $9.95?
Out in Wisconsin, Tom Hill sympathized with me about being hit for Internet service at four-star hotels when you can get it free at lower-priced competitors, not to mention a growing number of public places and, for that matter - as I noticed on my way home from the trade show - the entire Fort Lauderdale International Airport.
"I just won't pay for it," Mr. Hill said in a phone conversation. Mr. Hill, a former real estate investor, is an author and motivational speaker who spends at least 150 nights a year in a hotel. But he was not in his room when I called, even though he was on the road. Instead, he was ensconced with his laptop at a Panera Bread bakery-cafe in Milwaukee.
"You get free Wi-Fi at Panera," he said. "In some cities, it's my office away from home. Hotels charging 10 bucks for the Internet? We need to make this an issue."
Evidently, it is one, judging from the heavy e-mail response to a column on the subject two weeks ago. The backlash against charging for Internet access, whether hard-wired or Wi-Fi, has been building for years, especially among younger business travelers who have been accustomed to free high-speed Internet access since college.
"Hotels do not charge guests for electricity and light bulbs," Jonathan B. Spira, the chief executive of the research company Basex, wrote last year in a survey titled "Romancing the Road Warrior: The Case for Free Internet Access." Most business travelers, he said, "consider high-speed connectivity a basic necessity. Shouldn't that necessity be included in the cost of the room?"
Some readers, like Tom Nobles, have found ways to avoid hotel charges and tap into free Wi-Fi. Recently, after brooding about paying Internet access in a four-star Atlanta hotel, Mr. Nobles found that he could get a free Wi-Fi signal on a trip to Chattanooga, Tenn.
"I sat in the parking lot of the Wingate Inn and did my work on my laptop; also in the parking lot of a Panera Bread," he wrote.
Wingate Inns, a unit of the Cendant Hotel Group, was among the earliest budget chains to promote free Internet service. Rich Roberts, a Cendant spokesman, noted that Wingate also offers a menu of other services that business travelers look for, like free local phone calls and 24-hour business centers that do not charge for a printout or a photocopy.
Is this a righteous charge? Do you pay it? Should you?
The right way to handle being inundated with nuisance charges is to not stay at that hotel. For instance, instead of sitting in the parking lot of the Wingate Inn, Tom Nobles should have checked into it instead of at the "four star hotel". Voting with your wallet is far more effective than simply complaining about it.
Ron at October 13, 2005 5:22 AM
"Hotels do not charge guests for electricity and light bulbs,"
Is Mr. Spira serious? They do charge for electricity and light bulbs. They also charge for water, for television access, for an iron, toiletries, and most everything else in the room. Its all built into what you pay for the room!
As far as broadband internet access being a "necessity" I think people need to reevaluate what a "necessity" in life is!
The reason a number of hotels charge for internet access is because a thrid party (ie ISP) has provided the equipment to the hotel with the agreement that they can charge for the service to recoup their expenses, minus a small percentage to the hotel itself.
Other hotels put in their own equipment and support it themselves, and can therefore provide service for free (or work the cost into the room rate). The infrastucture is actually fairly cheap but in these cases there is typically very little in the way of customer service should you have a problem connecting.
A lot of hotels don't want the hassle of dealing with your average end user, who is typically the cause of their own problem. The cost of supporting end users can far outstrip the cost of the service itself ultimately.
So while electicity and light bulbs are "free" a hotel does not need to employ a call center to help guests who are having trouble turning on the lights in their room or plugging in the iron or their cell phone charger.
Senor Limey at October 13, 2005 9:22 AM
When traveling from Michigan to North Carolina, I just hop off the interstate, open up my laptop and cruise the motel/hotels at busy Exits.
I always find an open/free Wi-Fi. I also will not stay where I would have to pay.
Bret at October 13, 2005 1:13 PM
Senor Limey, you are mixing apples and oranges. Hotels do not charge for electricity and lightbulbs in a separate add-on charge, and it's the separate charge that the writer took issue with.
As for the cost of providing Internet support, hotels could either charge separately for support when requested (making it clear to the guest), or build it in to the cost of the room along with the other costs (wiring, maintenance, third party connection service, etc.). It's no different from factoring in not only the cost of buying towels, but also laundry and maids to replace them.
I'm guessing that the rationale of the hotels that charge separately is that they don't want to charge extra to customers who don't use Internet access. But you end up paying indirectly for a lot of what they offer unconnected to actual use (tv, pool, exercise room, etc.), so I'm sure many people can and would swallow the rate increases, probably more easily than they would tolerate the separate charges.
Melissa at October 13, 2005 1:47 PM
Hotels charge $10 for a freakin' beer. And most overcharge for phone calls, which are just as "essential" as Internet.
It may be no fun, but it's fair game.
LYT at October 14, 2005 2:30 AM
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