Major hotel chains and independent properties around the world continue to charge guests for using the internet – an irritation for those who consider it as important as free room towels.
Despite his belief that technology should be treated as an extension of the guest experience, Mark Kendall, vice president of the Hospitality Financial & Technology Professionals Asia Pacific, is against the idea that hotels should provide free internet access to guests.
“The challenge with broadband is the cost of service. If it’s a three star hotel and it offers unsecured bandwidth, then user beware. But if a CEO is staying in a five star hotel, then he expects some level of security and the level of infrastructure that is required to support these services costs the hotel.”
He says some hotels were considering the wireless.sg model (the free wireless service found in prime locations in Singapore) whereby you get a minimum service – say a bandwidth of 128K – for free and if you want extra, you pay.
“Business travellers form 75% of the business for hotels in Singapore, and their RFPs with corporates have to include broadband, so that’s already being added.”
Kendall says people also tend to download more when they travel – be it pornography or illegal downloads.
[NB: See recent moves by Radisson to crack down on illegal web browsing]
More and more though, customers are demanding free internet as a right of travel.
Not Kendall though. He says:
“As a business traveller, I don’t demand it. Most business travellers expense it anyway so they don’t care –  as long as it’s not coming out of my pocket?”
But what about entrepreneurs and SMEs who may not be able to expense it to someone else’s pockets – people such as Carl Griffth, a design consultant living in Singapore.
“For me, I expect internet and I expect it to be free. It’s like towels, I use one everyday but I don’t pay for it. So if I don’t pay, will they give me used towels instead? Now if I ordered dancing girls – which may not be considered normal service – then yes, I expect to pay for it.”
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About Siew Hoon Yeoh
The security needs of guests remain consistent regardless of job title or role, or whether the traveler is on business or leisure. Every hotel guest has a need for a safe, secure, and reliable connection.
Hotels’ ability to charge is defined not by the property across the road, but whether a guest can go to a nearby cafe or other establishment for free (or less expensive) access.
Charging for Internet access, along with hotel “resort fees,” annoys guests. Given travelers’ sharp focus on savings, sticking to budget, and finding value, hotels should incorporate Internet access cost into their guestroom rates or, like Fairmont and Omni, offer free Internet access as a benefit of loyalty program membership.
I just returned from a business trip to Manila, where I stayed at the Pan Pacific hotel. I really appreciated the hotels free Internet access as I saved myself close to $100 over 4 days which is almost equal to the cost of an extra room night. In future I will actively seek out hotels who offer free Internet access.
As a guest point of view, i totally agree. Hotels should give free internet access. In fact, now a days most public areas provide free wi-fi as value added service. I don’t see any reason why hotel should not do the same.
May be for Malaysian hotels, the two big obstacles are security & cost. Hotels must find ways to overcome this & move forward for the sake of globalization.
Charging for basic interent access in today’s world is like a hotel charging for hot water or an airline charging for carry on bags. A purely regressive add-on charge. Most Vegas hotels charge $10-$20 for internet access and it is often limited. To stay on budget just us it every other day, a business deterent not a business builder. Accounting department comments on it every time it is expensed.
If hotels want business travlers, basic internet access is as essential as hot water for a morning shower and should be treated as such.
I echo @henry and @mcd’s comments.
But I’d also note that once the heavy lifting of putting the infrastructure is done, it’s a question of how to enhance the return on investment. The pay for use model works best when your cost of delivery is variable, but in this case, the majority of the cost of delivery is fixed — both in terms of monthly lease cost for the equipment and bandwidth. Besides in today’s marketplace the incremental cost of bandwidth (if it is in fact being billed per bit) is small and decreasing every day, so I believe the issues about the amounts that people download is a red herring. Business travelers often have very low download rates as most of what they’re getting is data. If porn is the issue, there are ways to block that content.
So in the case of a mostly fixed cost model, the best course of action is to increase occupancy (free Internet is an incentive) rather than adding on fees. Or another tact would be to modestly increase the fee for all rooms (at a much reduced rate than the Internet access fee, based on historical usage rates) to increase to total revenue.
Lastly I want to add to Henry’s comment about competition for Internet access. One of the fastest growing mobile segments is mobile data cards or 3G/4G “MiFi” hotspots. I just bought one as a companion to my shiny new iPad. At $60/month I have Internet access every day of the month, wherever I am — in the hotel, at the airport, attending a conference. Many business travelers, especially those who travel often are going this route, further reducing the pool of business travelers hotels think will purchase in-room Internet to recoup their investment.
I do have one question for the group: are there any stats on the % of corporations that have negotiated agreements with hotel chains which may/may not include free Internet access?
Enough is enough with hotels and their Wi-Fi fees. Rates are expensive enough as it is for a 19-21 hour stay at a 3- to 4-star hotel. They should include Wi-Fi in their rates instead of shaking down their guests. Occupancy is down big time at hotels worldwide, so why not add some perks to attract people to stay. I have stayed at some pretty nice hotels thanks to my travel site.
While I enjoyed the property, I could not review it without telling people that they did not offer complimentary internet in their rooms. I will avoid booking a hotel if it charges. There are just too many these days to choose from that provide complimentary access to the internet.
I asked my readers what was their biggest hotel annoyance and hotels charging for internet was easily number one.
http://www.thebrooklynnomad.com/hotel-annoyances/
I was the one who constantly ranted about how hotels would charge guests for Internet access. I also thought this is the new way to over-charge people on their room rates like we used to with phone bills.
So I started to look around hotels with free WIFI and make a decision on whether I should stay in the hotel based on this facility (+price + location + reputation). The problem is free WIFI is usually low quality in terms of bandwidth. And most of the time, you can’t even reach the signal in your room. You need to come down to the lobby with your laptop and connect. This is not practical (especially if you need to plugged your laptop)
So here I am, writing this comment on a paid WIFI service provided by Fairmont. I’d rather pay something extra with good quality broadband and be able to load my emails, watch my French TV news program, get a video call through Skype with my wife and son and so on than waiting and waiting and waiting for the free WIFI to do all this.
I haven’t experienced many hotels with free WIFI that really offer a good Internet service. The last one that was ok was the Park Plaza Wallstrasse in Berlin. But you wouldn’t stream BBC i player on it. It was good service for emails.
As everything, delivering a good internet service to guests has a cost…and if guests want the best, they would pay…if they want mediocre service, they get the free WIFI.
@guillaume
Interestingly, all my most recent visits to hotels in the US have included free wifi, and they have worked very well.
This is from the luxurious Omni in Orlando to a tiny (and pretty grubby) motel down the highway.
Pot-luck methinks sometimes.
I’d like to agree with Guillaume’s point that the quality aspect of a paid service is what many guests demand. Although free WiFi is fairly easy to come across, so are the frustrations that go with it. One person downloading video will usually slow the whole connection, or too many users can reduce the system to a grinding halt. And it’s not just the speed of connection which is important , but also the security and support provided by paid-for services.
According to iBAHN’s recent research at http://www.10yearsofbroadband.com, the three biggest challenges for broadband networks over the next 10 years will be increased data traffic (38%), demand for higher speeds (19%) and security (16%), none of which are catered for very well by free WiFi, and all of which are addressed with a service developed for business travellers.
I am having a lot of problems getting 2 load your blog. I visited it many times before and never got anything like this, but now when I try 2 load the site it just idles 4 a little while and then just stops. I have tried both with www & without. Do you know what could be the problem? Please ask your host support… I hope to be able to come back soon.
In sri lanka most of the hotels provide free internet access
In NL most of the hotels provide free internet access..