May 01, 2005
Hotel Wi-Fi
I went to a wedding this weekend. On Thursday night I stayed in a cheap Best Western . They had free Wi-Fi. On Friday and Saturday night I stayed in a fancy schmancy inn (don't worry, I wasn't paying). Even though this place was more than twice as expensive as the Best Western, they charged $10 a day for broadband. Also, a "day" was defined as "until 3pm", so if I wanted a connection from, say, 11pm Friday until 11pm Saturday, I would have had to pay $20. What's up with that?
Judging from the advertisements along the highway, free broadband at hotels has hit a tipping point . I think it's unlikely that I will ever book a room for myself that doesn't have free broadband.
Posted by Dirtae at May 1, 2005 07:07 PMThe hotel I ended up at in Las Vegas for NAB had free ethernet in the room. However Apple people were spread out among at least 6 hotels for no apparent reason. Some places charged $10 or $20 a day for internet access and some places didn't have internet access at all.
Posted by: Jason Marr at May 1, 2005 07:33 PMMy postulate is that corporate customers are propping up wireless internet prices at the more "upscale" locations in the country.
This would explain your hotel experience above, and also why you can get free wireless internet at nearly any independant coffee shop these days, while Starbucks still expects you to pay $6/hr for T-Mobile's hotspot service .
Posted by: Josh Staiger at May 1, 2005 08:19 PMActually, I've read about this sort of things before. The idea is people who pay pay $100+/night for higher-end hotels are much more willing to pay an additional $10-15 for internet than those in a budget hotel, where that same fee makes up a large percentage of the room rate. I was also rather suprised to find a similar situation when I got to stay at a prestigous hotel in NYC, but it turns out it's a very common practice.
Posted by: Chris Pimlott at May 3, 2005 12:51 AM
