Hotels Testing Lower Price For Lower Quality WiFi Access
http://consumerist.com/2010/09/hotels-testing-lower-rates-for-lower-quality-in-room-wifi.html
When I logged on the InterContinental's system, I was asked to choose between a $10-a-day option for low bandwidth (good for checking emails and reading online articles) and a $15-a-day option (good for VPN access, sharing PowerPoint presentations and watching movies).”
Hotels are constantly looking for ways to nickel-and-dime guests. They would charge you for your water use by the gallon if they could get away from it. :)
I think tiered Internet of any kind is a very bad idea. It's just one step towards the breakdown of Net Neutrality, which threatens the Internet as we know it...
http://www.savetheinternet.com/frequently-asked-questions
14 years
I've seen this before, it's really annoying and i believe it looks bad for the business.
I don't understand why lots of hostels are able to offer free wireless and big hotel chains that already charge a lot of money to stay there can't offer it? Or at least a cheaper/equal price for fast wifi to everyone??
14 years
I don't understand why lots of hostels are able to offer free wireless and big hotel chains that already charge a lot of money to stay there can't offer it?
They can afford to offer free WiFi, but they're looking for any excuse to charge more. :)
14 years
Most hotel guests are business guests. They say "whatever, put it on the bill" - their boss pays it anyway. They don´t attract guests with free wifi. They attract them much better with bonus miles or other stuff they can consume privately some time later.
Hostel guests pay everything out of their own pocket and hate those hidden costs.
Of course the hotels could afford it, but it´s a nice way to make extra money.
14 years
I think you've hit the nail on the head there Klaus - places that attract corporate guests are unlikely to offer something free that a lot of their guests will simply put on the account and charge to the company. I stayed at a holiday inn in london and the charge there was £6.50 p/hour for 11b wireless access. Clearly a rip-off, and there was a wetherspoons (pub) next door that offered free access. Still you'd see people using it.
The other thing is that it was a big hotel and offered wifi in every room, which would have been a very big set-up that someone would have to manage -which wouldn't be cheap. A lot of hostels just offer basic wifi in the area around the common room. This is a lot easier and cheaper that a full networked system involving many access points over multiple floors.
14 years
Most hotel guests are business guests. They say "whatever, put it on the bill" - their boss pays it anyway. They don´t attract guests with free wifi. They attract them much better with bonus miles or other stuff they can consume privately some time later.
I used to work in a nice hotel where we charged $10 for 24 hours of wifi access. The Holiday Inn Express that sat on the other side of our parking lot sold the rooms for less money, and the wifi was free. When I suggested that $10 was too much, the General Manager said, “They give it away for free because they HAVE to in order to get anyone to stay there. Our guests can afford it, and people who can afford it don’t mind paying for it.”
The days of unchecked corporate spending accounts are long gone, and no one likes getting ripped off when they’re spending their own money. Businessmen and families alike, our guests just walked over to sit in Holiday Inn’s lobby and use their internet instead of paying us for it. The manager over there didn’t mind, because I’m sure that a lot of those people booked at that hotel instead of mine on their next trip.
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