Hotels – stop ripping us off with high wi-fi charges

I can’t see the problem here, as long as the charges are clear and visible up front.

(Even if it is ‘free’ to provide, this does not mean that it cannot be sold, if people are willing to pay. Otherwise how could you ever justify the price charged for a cup of tea?)

If you want wifi, you just need to include the cost of it in the day rate when comparing with other hotels.

Today WiFi is like running water, heating and TV. All these are basic services that needs to be included in the room fees. It is outrageous that hotel charge for that a large amount, especially since they pay for this a fixed price anyway. Before booking an hotel, I always check if they have free WiFi, and only stay at hotels that offer this basic service free.
Also, when abroad and looking for a restaurant, I will always prefer a place with free WiFi.
If more people will do that, we’ll force the hotel and restaurant owners to provide this service, basic at the 21st century!

I think a bigger issue here is hotels that claim internet access but only offer wired connections. With the rise in tablets an ethernet cable is pointless for anyone not using a laptop.

What I fail to understand is how Starbucks can offer me free internet with me £3 coffee but a hotel can’t for my £100 hotel room. If two hotels had the same offer but one had wifi and the other didn’t then for me it’s a deal winner.

Whilst I agree that Wifi is fast-becoming a de-facto necessity, particularly as if you have an iPad or an iPhone, a wired connection is all but useless, I feel I must point out that there is a difference between adding wifi to a cafe – one room, one router, perhaps another wireless access point – and adding wifi to a hotel – many, many rooms, insulated to protect from sound leakage (who wants to hear their neighbours “at it”) and with no existing cabling infrastructure.

To retrofit a hotel is awfully expensive, and the cost doesn’t scale as the hotel gets bigger. Modern hotels will already be wired for ethernet, indeed, many have an access point in each room, but I wonder if there’s a correlation between hotels that charge for wifi, and those that had to retrofit it?

I use Holiday Inn almost exclusively where daily wifi ranges from about £10 to £25! Consequently I use mobile broadband, but always complain at the cost to the manager. Though there a few locations whcih can’t even make sure there is a good mobile signal either!
Recently I was talking to a senior marketing person in Holiday Inn – they told me that they recognise that there is no justification for charging, but the £1m income from wifi charges in the UK is something they can’t afford to lose…

I have always worked in I.T. and find Wi-Fi is a necessity so when my wife and I converted a brick stable into a self catering establishment we made Wi-Fi available and free. I find it annoying when you go to a hotel and they charge £5 an hour for access and then only have the same bandwidth available that I have at home shared amongst 50 rooms with availability not always there in higher rooms.

In my experience, cheaper family run hotels and B&B’s do not charge. Sometimes it is not advertised and I have to ask for a password, but they always seem happy to oblige.