By Will Sturgeon, 26 July 2006 09:00
COMMENT
In this wired world, hotels - especially those that cater to business travellers - should offer free internet access to their guests. Will Sturgeon counts the many reasons why.
The nature of my job as silicon.com managing editor means I'm travelling a fair bit and as I write this I'm back over in the US, logged on and communicating with the office courtesy of free in-room wi-fi provided by the Four Seasons hotel in Palo Alto, California.
That's right... free wi-fi, in a hotel. Whatever next?
It shouldn't be remarkable but sadly it is. In my experience the Four Seasons is still much more the exception than the rule, when logic dictates internet access should absolutely be given away free, especially as hotels in areas such as Silicon Valley and similar destinations pitch themselves at the business traveller.
This isn't like the in-room pornography which should remain ring-fenced on a pay-per-view basis (though it could seriously be argued that free internet access would cannibalise that revenue stream). This is something which, to the business traveller, sad as it may seem to admit, can be as important as the bed linen and towels that you also reasonably expect to be covered by the room charge.
Wireless internet access is a service that a hotel could - and should - provide free of charge. At around $400 per room per night, the Four Seasons probably realises the 'cost' of charging $10 for internet access would far outweigh the profits from doing so.
I've stayed in eight or nine hotels in and around San Francisco over the past year and this area should, of any place on Earth, lead the way in such things as ubiquitous internet access and yet this is only the second place I've stayed that provided such a service (how high can those pornography revenues really be?).
Incredibly, the only other place that provided free wi-fi was a flea-pit in San Francisco's Tenderloin District - certainly not aimed at the business traveller, or anybody with a sense of smell - which I really wouldn't recommend to anybody.
Internet access has become so cheap, so commoditised and so easy to provide, especially as many of these hotels in the normal course of their own communications infrastructure already have enough cable in and out of their buildings to tie a big bow around the moon. And yet many large hotel groups and independents appear to see more value in getting $10 off their customers for 24 hours' access than they do in adding a further incentive for that customer to visit again.
For $10 all they are really doing is annoying customers - a nominal charge it may be but as such it surely advertises its own pointlessness. Some even require you to go down to the reception desk to buy access cards. And while I concede there are people in Africa who walk 20 miles to collect drinking water these are, perhaps for shame, very different economic models.
Surely this is basic marketing. You could make $200 from your customers per night and have more happy customers, or you can get $205 per customer - assuming even 50 per cent want to log on and pay for the privilege - and disenfranchise a few of them.
And if that doesn't make sense to any hotel managers reading this, then consider the following piece of simple economics.
If you provide free internet access it is far more likely customers will choose to log on in their rooms than if you charge them for access they could pay for, or get free elsewhere. And by logging on in their rooms and eschewing other wi-fi destinations such as Starbucks it's far more likely they'll be eating from your overpriced room service menu while they work than choosing from Starbucks' overpriced coffee menu.
This isn't just a case of asking hotels to give something away free. There is a lot in this for the hotels as well.
Many offer loyalty schemes now because they see the value in repeat bookings and yet many large chains still charge business travellers to access the internet, which seems at odds with any notion of wanting to engender loyalty or create a plausible 'please call again' sales pitch.
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Nice rant Will, and I have to say I've thought the same thing myself many times over. But at $400 a night, believe me you've paid for your Internet access already - probably many times over!
2. Dave Cantrill
Will, I certainly agree with your thoughts on this. Have been in the States now for 3 months after 6 years in the UK. Was on a trip to Clearwater FL a couple of weeks back and was amazed that the $65 a night hotel I was staying in not only had free WiFi but was also very fast. Then when I was flying back out of Tampa airport, they had free WiFi there also. Times are changing. Although I did have to pay AT&T for the privilege of using theirs a couple of weeks earlier in Denver airport. I don't even care if advertising is paying for my internet access. It's so damn cheap to provide it now, that it shouldn't be an issue. Just my 2p.
3. Jilbert
Hilton Hotels charge for the "honor" of having in room WIFI, yet their lower cost entitites (Hilton Gardens, Double Tree, Embassy, Hampton, etc...) do NOT charge. They explained it as "someone staying at a HILTON hotel has plenty of money to spend the extra $10". But their "bargin hotels" get it free? I guess the moral of the story is - if you want free WIFI, stay at a cheap hotel!
4. anonymous
Will, I agree 100% with you. In fact I just made a month-long trip down the east coast in April this year, choosing my hotels based on whether they had free internet access or not, and then by price/location. When you communicate over Skype daily to Europe from the USA, it's a no-brainer. It was as if we'd never left home, for those who stayed behind.
Excellent article! keep up the good job.
Best regards,
Jerry from France
5. David
Spot on Will. In the current plush hotel in Rotterdam I have to pay 22EUR for the "privilege" (I would argue "necessity") of internet access. These hotel owners - who think of themselves as businessmen - cannot follow the logic that puts essentials such as free internet access over frivolities such as mints on the pillow.
6. Trevor Sherman
Will - I agree with your idea that hotels should provide free internet access. It's a utility like water in the bathroom or lighting in the bedroom. The best service seems to come from wired connection in my experience. Hotels don't seem to have got the hang of WiFi in their steel frames buildings.
The big challenge is where a third-party provider has 'got at' the hotel group (done a big sell). They are bound to charge because of the profit motive of the third party. You can tell from the scratch cards you need. Just last week it was £20 for 24 hours or £8 for 4 hours at my grossly overpriced Aberdeen city centre hotel. Presumably the third party company installs the infrastructure and convinces the hotel to share revenues.
Even where the hotel's group IT get involved in the service provision its not always free and not always good. Six months ago in Slough I checked the hotel's bandwidth and it was crawling at less than dial up speed. I copied the bandwidth test to the hotel and got a refund at checkout the next morning.
7. Pete McGettigan
Agree entirely Will. I stay in a big name brand business hotel in London every week and am charged silly money for a room plus extra for web access. And yet there is a Bed and Breakfast in the village I live in in Yorkshire that not only gives free Wi-Fi access but will also lend guests a laptop if they need it.
...and dont get me started on what the London hotel charges for a bottle of water!
8. Chris Tweed
I recently stayed in a hotel near Heathrow to attend a course. I was only there for 3 nights, but thought that having net access would help with the boredom each night. The cheapest access was around £5 for 2 hours, I cant remember the exact pricing, but it was then something like £20 for 24 hours access.
The access was timed from the point you first used it, so if you went online at 8pm one day the two hour service would expire at 10 that night and a 24 hour package would expire at 8pm next day regardless of how much or little you used the service.
Okay, so if I went for 24 hour access I would be out attending my course for 8 hours, sleeping for another 8 hours which would give me a maximum of 8 hours use assuming I didn't eat, shower or do anything else - for £20.
I did give the £5 for 2 hours a go one evening, only to find that I had to go to the reception area (read : bar) in order to actually use it. If you bought the 24 hour 'deal' then you could use it in your room but for 2 hours you were not even given that 'luxury' and it seemed obvious to me that they were trying to encourage you to sit there buying expensive beverages all the time you were online.
After this experience I will NEVER use a paid for hotel internet access service again. Just a shame my boss had borrowed my 3G card at the time.
9. Dave Whitehead
Can't agree more. I too check for availability of free access before booking hotels wherever I am going. Guess who is going to head the queue for my money?
10. anonymous
Agree 100%. Other than location the most importance criteria I use for choosing a hotel is free wifi or at least free internet connectivity in the room--please hotels do not think that having free access in the lobby is a real incentive.
Unfortunately my experience is that american hotel chains have figured out the loyalty question much better than those here in europe who continue to charge 20-30 euros for the privilege of connecting from my room.