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What Should We Expect With Hotel Internet Connections?
Back in 2006, I stayed in a hotel in Munich that offered daily Internet access for $79. I took a photo of the information card but can’t seem to locate the photo. I declined the service and used the $10/hr Internet cafe down the block.
It seems today hotel Internet is either free or ranges in price from $10-17/day. Over the past month I’ve stayed in four hotels, two offered free Internet and two charged (one at $14.95/day – the other at $12.95/day).
I had to speak with tech support at each location – at one hotel the connection died, at two others the SMTP (mail) server wouldn’t allow me to send email and at the last the WiFi connection didn’t connect. The support was actually the same company for all four locations (in different cities) and the support personnel noted they were either in Manilla or Montreal. It was pretty shocking to me that the operator had mail service turned off when the only way to get on the network was to pay using your name and room number combination.
It’s always interesting how the “family” hotels offer free access while the “business” hotels charge. I guess that goes to the idea that people staying in the business hotels have an expense account to charge and won’t moan or bitch.
At the brand new hotel I stayed at in SF, the $15/day got me a very fast connection while the free connection at another hotel was also fast enough to be acceptable. The other two connections (free and $13/day) were piss slow and even basic surfing was nearly impossible for the majority of the stay. The new hotel forced a toolbar and no matter what I did, it kept popping up every other minute.
With all of that said, I am curious to hear thoughts on the following questions:
- Should we expect Internet connections in hotels to be provided for free just like towels and soap?
- If there is a charge, what is a reasonable price to pay?
- What type of connection speed should we expect to receive?
- Is WiFi always ok or do you require wired?
- Are there specific services you would like to see on your hotel Internet connection?
- Other needs?
My answers to the above are…. I’d like to see free connections everywhere and would be willing to run an ad supported toolbar. If paid, $10/day should be the max. I expect a fast connection and no blocked services (except maybe anything pirating related including torrent-downloads.
Leave your thoughts in the comments and include prices you’ve paid for hotel internet access. If we don’t see better connections, maybe we will all need to be like this guy and find an open WiFi hotspot which can force us to surf/work via the toilet.
Lets be honest. How good can we really expect the internet service to be if it is offered for free? I work with VOIP phones systems and server networks everyday (just not for hotels) and let me tell you the overhead for these systems can be enourmous. My theory: the reason the internet is terrible is because there is no significant source of income for the hotels to increase their network functionality. Since the high-speed internet boom in hotels, phone systems don’t make the hotel revenue anymore. Services like Skype, cellular providers, and instant messaging have taken from those income sources. Businesses don’t have this problem as they need good connections to perform in business and make money, so they invest in good equipment and security. What is the motivation for a small to medium sized hotel to invest in a solid network? This is economics 101. They don’t make enough money on these systems to maintain the infrastructure at the rate of demand for better services if offering them for free. Only the hotels who charge have any sort of motivation. This is hurting our internet quality, not to mention risking our security, when we don’t pay for a more stable, fast, and secure connection. I for one do not want to pay but I see no other way if we want internet service to be reliable at hotels in the future.
I don’t think it is viable for hotels to offer a decent WiFi service without charging for it, and internet should not be compared to towels or soap. Whilst people tend to think that free = good, maybe they actually mean “good enough for what I’m trying to do”. But a decent service (wired or WiFi) requires investment, infrastructure and management to offer hotel guests (especially business travellers) the speed, security and support they value and will therefore pay for. If you try to offer this all for free then unsurprisingly services will be cut and guests will be disappointed.
Another way of approaching this would be a tiered offering – free access up to a certain bandwidth and with limited features, then a paid-for service for those who need more.
I have yet to have a good experience with hotel Internet. The free wi-fi is intermittent, and the more expensive hotels charge for it.
The 4-stars won’t stop charging for it until travelers quit paying for it.
Your observations are spot on. I find that WiFi service at hotels to be very unreliable, especially the free services. I now use a 3G cellular service almost exclusively and it is very liberating to not worry about connectivity in my room, airport, on the road, or coffee shop. Using the 3G services also offers more security and more bandwidth. If you travel alot, using a 3G AirCard is the best way to stay connected.
Internet connection has become more important than a phone in the room, since so many are using mobile phones, to travelers these days. When traveling I patronize hotels with free connection over paid, in most cities. I do pay an online provider $10 a month for dial-up service so that when I am traveling whether the hotel has a connection or not, I do. If the hotel charges for Internet then I use my dial-up. It is a little slower but for what I do on the net, it works fine. So, my vote is free service. Although, you are going pay for it via higher room rates. The service does cost the hotel so I don’t mind paying for that but I don’t believe they need to make a profit from that service. They don’t charge for cable TV. Reasonable fee $5 max fee per day.
Speed should be no less than what the average user gets at home. Quality or large hotels should offer the highest speed available to them.
I prefer wired connection over wi-fi for security reasons. The hotel should not have control over what I access or download. No ad supported connections! No added toolbars!
Connections need to be secure, especially since so may users do online shopping and banking requiring personal info. Hackers are everywhere. It is no different than years ago with the advent of the credit card, information was stolen (by employees) from hotel receipts. Dishonest people exist to security is important. VERY important.
That is a nasty photo….anyone who needs to be on the Internet while taking a S#*t
is either so self absorbed or a moron……not to mention it is so unsanitary…..please
have someone at CN filter your articles and their contents….
I don’t travel a lot, but when I do I would prefer to not pay. When in Canada I would gladly use my iPhone’s EDGE connection over paying a hotel. If I had to pay – $10 would be as high as I go. I’m unwilling to pay more for one day than I do at home for a month.
Personally, I would rather pay a nominal fee than deal with an ad-supported network. Having said that, Internet has become so ingrained in our culture that I think hotels should provide free Internet access.
I don’t really care whether they provide wireless or wired. Of course, wireless is more convenient, but wired is just fine for most uses, as well.
We are a budget hotel in Agra, India. We provide free internet access to our guests but that doesn’t mean we are cheap (being budget hotel is entirely different), or we ain’t business hotel.
I choose hotels by internet access many times, especially when outside the U.S. $40-$60 extra for Internet access for a 4 day stay is not insignificant. Strangely it seems the nicer the hotel the more they charge.
I really appreciate you for bringing up such topics for discussions. I think that we are living in a generation where internet plays a major role in our day to day activities. So Internet should be provided on hotels and resorts as complimentary. Yeah! the image which you have presented for the WiFi hot spot is really interesting though somewhat funny.
Just as I clicked on the link to this article from Original Signal I got the Motel 6 access log in page asking for money–how’s that for synchronicity! $3 per day is a little more than I pay for ATT wireless, which is easy to max out at 5000 MB of access, so I use the motel service for slightly slower speed but unlimited bandwidth. Maybe the biggest issue with this subject is the lack of encryption. My Norton Internet Security shows about 100 other users and often their computer’s name, brand, physical address & IP address. I wonder what a packet sniffer would find of the 116 computers on the hotel network and imagine it is open season for anybody that tries a little hacking. Other than that I find the hotel network actually faster than I was getting with a mid level speed ethernet connected cable modem from Charter Cable TV… go figure!
I absolutely refuse to pay for internet access away from home. In today’s age, hotels should definitely offer free access. I’m amazed at how I focus on different aspects of my life when I’m cut from the internet
i always stay at the cheap places that offer free wifi – paying is crap