By silicon.com, 30 January 2007 14:30
Since silicon.com raised the issue of rip-off wi-fi charges in hotels, we've been inundated with vocal support from readers who agree the extortionate charges made by hotels need to be consigned to the history books.
Business travellers now rely upon connectivity and a culture in which ubiquitous wi-fi is seen as a given is fast developing. The workforce is going that way and the IT industry is too.
Excessive costs for wi-fi are not only at odds with the direction the rest of the world is going, they are entirely unjustified.
This is why silicon.com has launched its 'Fair Wi-fi' campaign.
The issue isn't just about the cost, especially when many of us might expense those charges. The trouble is, while we may be able to afford it - begrudgingly - we are also able to see when we are being fleeced and it doesn't make you feel like a valued customer.
Many hotels don't publicise their wi-fi charges with bookings sites or even on their own websites, making it difficult for guests to make informed choices ahead of checking in. This means these extortionate charges are stealthily imposed on customers who need to work. That simply isn't fair.
In time, more people will find out which hotels aren't charging extortionate fees and they will vote with their feet. But we don't believe the market or the UK's reputation can wait for nature to take its course.
It's also unfair for hotels to pitch themselves as business travel destinations and yet fail utterly to understand one of the most important requirements of their customers.
This campaign is about services not moving with the times, about regular business travellers subsidising services like gyms which are covered by their room charge while being forced by the hotel to pay through the nose for wi-fi access.
It's about a rip-off which needs to be more clearly publicised.
We appreciate hotels have a right to make money. We're not soon going to start demanding free food and drink. We're not going to stop tipping the concierge and bell desk and we're not even going to complain about the room rates - many of which should easily be able to cover the cost of providing wi-fi.
By running this campaign, we hope to undermine some of the myths that persist about the cost to hotels of providing such services and to increase the pressure on hotels to realise the days of being able to overcharge for wi-fi are coming to an end.
We hope to inform consumers and to provide a common voice for those who want hotels to know they must move with the times or risk losing the lucrative repeat bookings of business travellers.
Most of all we want you to join us in making this campaign a success.
Please sign our petition and give your support to this campaign.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Ralph Beales
Then go to MacDonalds (sp) and use their BT Openzone. Very cheap, very easy. http://btopenzone.hotspot-directory.com/ for a list of sites.
DO NOT BE RIPPED OFF BY ROBBIG HOTELS!
2. misceng
Name and Shame. That is an effective way of handling the problem. Promote a web site to collect the data and tell the culprits when they are featured. That will get a reaction. Petitions are too easily ignored.
3. Brian Catt
Magnificent, but pointless. Get real Ed.
Wi Fi rates in Hotels will change when GPRS is undercutting WiFi and the Hotel's WiFI revenues drop off. Not before. S'obvious.
Its like asking the Mountain bar at Courchevel to reduce the price of a cold Erdinger from £7.50 - "it is the cost of getting it up the Mountain, Monsieur" - and the Summer off in St Maxime as the overhead. Or why the French have Nuclear power. Pas de choix.
Hotels have gouged customers for comms and other services for ever. Its what they do, with a grovelling smile and while expecting a tip. They have telephone services business managers, this business can exceed the profit on the room rate which is almost a loss leader for the overpriced restaurant, bar and communications services. Calls all go through private switches which rack up the rate, no national PTT dial tones here.
Remember those telephone bills abroad which exceeded the room charge for a 30 min internationall call? Or the nicely varnished call boxes in main post offices you paid the operator to use to call England from Europe for you? That was why Telegrams, the SMS of their time (no, nothing is new and SMS was obvious to anyone who understood bandwidth loadings of different traffic).
When you have a monopoly you don't lower prices. This happened in Hotels when Mobiles provided an alternative so terrestrial hotel phone rates are now down - to Mobile levels! Still hugely profitable and no reason to go lower.
Even when there is oligopoly you don't initiate price reductions, ask the oil companies. Duh!
You have to be forced by economic sanctions, the only effective ones against a business.
You now have a choice for Data. If you just want a quick look at your mail headers and web site you can now connect GPRS mobile, but that's not cheap and its per MB - £3 per MB in my case, or £1 per MB if I buy 5MB Boltons every month. 5 Megaboltons (my unit) for £5 - In the UK. Overseas roaming data is somewhat more!
The WiFi "rip-off" can be a great deal used creatively.
If you get all you can eat with WiFi and intend to do a lot of mail and web browsing MBytes its probably better to stump up the £10 and know that's it. That way you can make all your international calls on Skype or enterprise VoIP service then log onto your favourite Internet porn or gambling sites cheaper than the Hotels rip off TV porn, get onto your meaningful blogs while watching the porn if you are a journalist - and it won't be on your bill.
Not a bad deal. Use it well.
Brian
4. Hugh Kennedy
Reinforce the positive, name hotels/chains with no or very reasonable charges. I would like to give an honorable mention to Radisson SAS - Free WiFi. I didn't check Skype there though - but that is the other real saving, particularly when in a foreign country.
5. Nico Macdonald
Beyond cost, there are also issues around quality of service, scope of service, and ease of use. In the domain of scope of service, some hotels restrict access to certain ports and protocols, which can make use of even email impossible. The flip side to this over-secure approach is the lack of good technical support, though even basic knowledge of the use of commercial/public WiFi services is far from limited to hotels.