NEWS
Hotel managers take note: your customers are growing frustrated at the charges imposed for using the internet while they are a paying guest in a hotel.
According to a silicon.com poll more than half of respondents believe hotels must stop charging paying guests altogether for internet access, branding it "a rip-off", and a staggering 98 per cent of respondents said charges are too high.
If your hotel is too expensive why not check out wi-fi access in one of London's many pubs.
Check out silicon.com's guide to the best London wi-fi-enabled boozers here.
And what's more only two per cent of respondents said those customers who want internet access should have to keep paying extortionate fees. Another two per cent were pessimistic in their response, suggesting hotels would simply add the costs to other charges and expenses.
Perhaps the starkest warning came from the 20 per cent of respondents who said customers will start to go elsewhere, as internet access becomes a consideration for those booking hotels.
The hotels' best chances of retaining some revenue from web access are the 24 per cent of respondents who said hotels could still charge but must make access a lot cheaper.
One silicon.com reader, posting a reader comment, said large hotels have no excuses. "Large business-traveller hotels have the IT infrastructure already in place and if you are positioning yourself as a business traveller's hotel, then not providing free broadband access is a joke in today's tech world."
Another reader wrote: "Broadband access should always be 'free'. Just like hot water and lighting it's an essential element of the room for the business traveller."
Comments
There are 10 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
Just been to Canada. Stayed in motels, £60 per night for two people. With one exception, all the motels had free Wi-Fi. If *motels* in Canada can do it, why can't hotels in the UK do so aswell, given the high prices charged by them?!!
2. Patrick Moore
Vote with your feet - it's the only thing that ever really makes a difference!
Hotels are in business to make money. If they can charge £20 per day for something that costs them basically nothing, THEY WILL!
There are hotels out there that don't charge extortionate amounts for wi-fi access; if we all start using them, in preference to the ones that do charge, the message will sink in pretty quickly.
3. Christopher Meacher
It's just another sign of the corporate money-grabbing attitude of the big hotels.
Was in London not too long ago and stopped in a cheapo B&B (£15/night I think) about 5 mins from Kings Cross. The room was of course basic, but the wireless broadband was provided free.
Compare that to just booked a conference at the Paramount Carlton in Edingurgh where it's £15 per day for the broadband on top of paying for the room.
Now in London - free room & board with every night's wireless broadband access!
So come on Mr Gareth Foster, of Weybridge, Surrey. You've registered freebroadband.co.uk - put it to use. Set a site up where we can register where to get free connections, and name-and-shame those that charge extortionate rates.
4. Gordon Davies
Use a 3G datacard, it will tyically save you a fortune in the UK, althought it can be problematic to get connectivity in some countries, but at least, I only have to use the hotel's extrortionate services when I have to.
5. Gordon Davies
Use a 3G datacard, it will tyically save you a fortune in the UK, althought it can be problematic to get connectivity in some countries, but at least, I only have to use the hotel's extrortionate services when I have to.
6. Michael Foggin
Re: Patricks comments about voting with your feet; in principle this is fine but I work for a large company with a preferred chain of hotels chosen by the company to get preferential rates so I DON'T get the choice.
As part of the 'preferential package; we get stuff like 'complimentary' breakfast, fruit, mineral water, room upgrades, use of health / fitmess faciities etc but we are still expected to fork out £15 a day for broadband access.
I'm not expected to pay a surcharge to get running hot and cold water in my room, or electricity for lights etc so why should I be expected to pay for internet access?
Most usage, in my experience and in conversations with colleagues, amounts to little more than picking up and sending email and some light web browsing, none of which puts a huge strain on the IT infrastructure and certainly isn't 'worth' £15!
Many domestic ISP's work on the basis of capped downloads so my suggestion would be for the hotels to adopt a similar policy. Cap free usage at a one or two hundred MB per day and THEN charge by the GB for use over and above this. This means that they won't lose revenue from people downloading films etc but have a lot of happy customers instead.
Everyone's a winners ?!
7. Peter Cochrane
3G has zip bandwidth and is of little use other than for simple/small text messages. You just can't run a modern business unless you can get access to Mbit/s
8. Kevin Inskip
just spent three nights in two hotels in Harrogate, at a conference.
free wi fi in both, although it was not working in one of them in the evening, and they didn't know when it would be fixed!
The harrogate conference centre (HIC) - now that was different. Numerous exhibitors had been charged in advance, inordinately large amounts for internet access during the accompanying exhibition. But guess what, i swithed on my trusty laptop, and immediately connected to the HIC wifi network, no charge & no hassle once you work out that you have to open your browser to actually log on.
9. Andrew Lewis
I had an exhibition at Harrogate last week and was delighted when someone told me that WiFi was free! This was only after I had clocked up a nice bill with my 3G datacard!
When travelling I tend only to be interested in checking emails etc so Hotspots tend to be bad value for money when compared to 3G data charges.
I think general WiFi Hotspots are overpriced as it is but hotels are taking the proverbial to charge residents for access inaddition to an overpriced room.
10. Robert Kemp
Patrick,
As a Commercial director of a company I suppose you don't constantly strive hard to maximise revenue and minimise its cost?
Maybe if we all worked for free then nobody would have to pay for anything.
Despite the predicted energy shortages why shouldn't we have our electricity and gas for free as well?
Compare wifi access with other things in life and you'll soon see that it's on a par with pretty much anything else.
For example to watch an average premiership football match will cost approx. 50p per minute over the 90 minutes, and it could be argued that using wifi Internet is more entertaining, certainly for business purposes, more useful. BT Openzone costs 10p per min.
The Wifi hotspot network is in its infancy. The fact is, the cost of setting up a quality wifi hotspot network is considerable.
There are areas of reception in the UK mobile telephone networks that are still a pile of poo even after all these years.
I don't hear us collectively moaning about the issues I cite here.
I for one am pleased with what is becoming a very useful service around the capital, and nothing is for free, its just that sometimes the costs, are hidden more cleverly.
Another gentle point, how about the rip-off customers who steal the soap, the bathrobes etc, that eat away at the profit obtained from renting the hotel room? The hotel doesn't get a reduction in the wage bill or the rates.