WiFi Policies by Hotel - Technology Evangelist

I'm currently writing this from a Westin Hotel where I'm unhappy. Why? Because, after paying a good chunk of change for a room, dealing with pleasant staff, and finding an immaculately prepared room upon my arrival, I was then forced to pay $13 for an Internet connection.

That's insulting.

So, after reluctantly coughing up the dough, I hopped online to see what I could learn about which hotel chains offer free WiFi and which ones don't. And what did I find? This awesome chart from HotelChatter.com:

Thank you. Thank you, Hotel Chatter for putting this together. It will be a great guide for me when booking future travel reservations. I now know that I should never stay in any of Starwood Hotels' higher end properties. Why should I pay more for a room that comes with an additional WiFi tax on top of the higher room charge? That's absurd.

It looks like the charging for WiFi policies of major chains are pretty consistent: The more you pay, the more you pay. If that's the case, I'll pay less to pay less. Instead of 3-stars or more, show me 3-stars or less.

Next step: Does anyone know of a travel site that allows users to filter for hotel properties with free WiFi? That's something I'd find truly valuable. Expedia doesn't seem to offer this, or if they do it's certainly not obvious to me.

Most hotels, local and corporate, have some leeway when it comes to these policies. I agree that you should let your wallet express your satisfaction/dissatisfaction with your stay, but if you've got a favorite, or your choices are limited, you can usually get them to throw this in for free. Just ask when you're making your reservations. I have to travel about 4-5 times per year. I've never been turned down. It's the timing. "How much is the room?" "Do you have free internet?" "Could you comp that?" Always a yes. This is usually the case when it doesn't cost them anything.

The higher-end hotel's charging for wifi when the lower-end ones give it away has been an occasional irk of mine. It just feels like a slap in the face knowing that if I had stayed at a cheaper place I'd be getting better amenities.

There's much for elasticity in the pricing structure for higher end hotels--those willing to pay (or, as more likely, have their companies pay) the higher room rates will simply accept the extra charge (as probably a business necessity) and pay it.

For the mid-range hotels, there's more competition and the pricing is pretty inelastic. A traveler who highly values about free internet access in their room would have chosen a particular hotel for that reason in the first place.

Thus, I find it quite ironic that when I stayed at the InterContental Boston at many hundreds of dollars per night, I had the privilege of paying $45 for 5 days of Internet access (which was less expensive than I expected), whereas when I stay at the Hampton Inn, WiFi is included.

Make it easy on yourself and get a Wireless Modem from Sprint, Verizon, or any of the others. If your out of the country, I'm sure there is a solution with other carriers. WiFi is too sporadic a connection to be useful to those who need to connect anywhere, anytime.
aglick35

It depends on the reason I'm getting a hotel room. If I'm on vacation, I don't care whether there is free WiFi since I'm not bringing my laptop with me anyway. I'm also more inclined to book a nicer hotel while I'm on vacation.

If I'm on business, however, then that's a different story. I'm not so concerned with getting a higher-end room and WiFi becomes a requirement.

All services at the hotels seem to follow this same pricing strategy. At high end hotels you get local TV and s small number of cable channels, but lots of pay per view movies. At the Candlewood Inn that I frequent you get a large selection of cable channels and free DVD loans. However they do not have Wifi at all at that hotel. The do have free wired internet though.

I'm a meeting planner, and this is something that totally irks me. Fortunately, since I'm usually booking a block of hundreds of rooms we can negotiate for free wireless (though this isn't really them giving us much; it doesn't cost the hotel anything to provide this.)

Another thing that really bothers me is that nicer hotels usually charge a daily fee for workout facilities, but I can work out for free at a Super 8.

Comments

1. Posted by: steven stern on July 6, 2008 4:13 PM:

Interesting timing. I just agreed to pay $12.95 for 24 hours of wifi at the Hyatt Regency Montreal. I carry my own wireless hub with me so, if available, I'll plug it in to the wall data jack. That way, my wife and I can share the internet fee and have an encrypted wifi connection. Here, the data jack has been disabled.

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