Will This Finally Spring The WiFi Dam?

Now we have settled on hotel WiFi issue, can we start on Airlines Baggage & other Fees!!!:)

Camelot, I think you nailed it. Tiered bandwidth is absolutely the answer. A lot of times when traveling, I only need to check my email, and it's infuriating to have to pay $15 to do that. On the other hand, if I'm streaming a movie, I don't mind paying for that, since I know the alternative is to pay for VOD.

Perhaps more pertinent to the discussion than free lunches is free breakfasts.. If a hotel provides a free breakfast, suddenly everyone will have breakfast. So the cost to the hotel goes up, and ultimately the quality goes down, OR the room rate goes up to cover it. And the loser is the person that doesn't eat breakfast. It's exactly the same with 'free' internet. Not everyone uses it, but in a 'free' scenario everyone pays. The difference with internet to breakfast is that the amount of bandwidth each guest 'eats' is increasing exponentially. (Google the amount of bandwidth consumed per user and see the growth). With tv content online, and this content is moving to HD, this bandwidth requirement is only going to continue, and bandwidth does not come cheap. Your guests can only eat a finite amount of eggs for breakfast. The ability to consume bandwidth is insatiable. So to talk about just an initial investment is misleading. A secure wifi system with 24/7 multi language helpdesk is expensive. Add in decent bandwidth and you can be talking very serious amounts of money. There are tiered offerings available, free for basic browsing and chargeable for video streaming, or capped at data limits. Maybe this is an answer?

Adam, thank you for finally getting round to trying for the creation of what exactly WIFI or rather internet access is. Amenity, service, infrastructure? I claim that free high speed internet access is a necessity such as in-room bathrooms or free swimming pool and fitness access. Sure, it costs money in terms of investment and maintenance, but can you imagine charging? It is stupid to think of internet access as a payable perk, same as it is stupid to think of having hotels with common per floor bathrooms, to be shared with others. When bulding a hotel the investment project should make a clear case of what the basic infrastructure of a hote is, from carpet to mattress, from bath or shower to number of towels. The norms of today's guests are a definite must for hotel owners and operators. I totally agree with all who have made it a point to boycott facilities with payable internet access. When impossible, I suggest to try the local internet cafe, usually not far away and much cheaper. Just wondering, didn't they have the same problems to hook up? Who is taking us for a profit ride then?

Kirby, in the good ol' days when hotels maintained a 'rack' rate, they could pass on amenity costs to the guest. Now, in days of yield management and opaque rates, there is no such thing as a 'rack' rate. Consequently, operators do not have the ability to tack on the cost of HSIA to the room rate. Ultimately, it means offering free HSIA is a consession - the hotel will NEVER recover the cost. Furthermore, with the introduction of 5Ghz 802.11n WiFi, the only hotels that will be able to upgrade quickly - to differentiate from the competition - will be hotels that generate revenue from HSIA or newly constructed hotels.

Cool Guy, I think you and I agree more than you realize. I'm not advocating that hotels (especially luxury hotels) should eat the cost of WiFi. I'm saying, rather than continue this tacky practice of nickel-and-diming customers, roll it into the room rate. Or, heck, roll it into the "resort fee" if you must. After all, hotels have no qualms about charging me $20 for a fitness center that I may or may not use. Do the same with WiFi. Whether guests are actually getting WiFi for free, they'll FEEL like they are, which matters more.

Thank you for your comments KC. Yes, the hotel is spending the money in other places. So when technology improves, what happend to the initial Wifi? Bmitch is correct. There are two different sides to this issue. And cannot be compaired to TVs or Housekeeping. These are expected. So why spend money on improving the TV sets or housekeeping equipment? The answer, to improve the standard of productivity and customer satisfaction. So, why have WiFi services been left out if it is that important? Just for everyones' information most hotels have build in the charges to the room rate, like it or not (Better word, use it or not). It is not free to any hotel and as the saying goes, there are no free lunch.

Adam Guest service and guest amenity to me is two different things. Whats included with a "room' i.e TV, towels etc are expected to work. Look at the differences in TVs in the different class of hotels. My point is if its complimentary or free, the guest expectations are lower then if being charged for it. If theyre being charged for it, their level of expectations rise. I've stayed at hotels as of late that charge for internet access and have no problem with connectivity. My point was about hotel companies constantly spending money to upgrade their wi-fi caps when its not revenue producing. I see your point thou, and would once again remark that there is salient arguements on both sides. However, I disagree with housekeeping and TVs being complimentary. Its a standard...I guess the question now is at what point is wi fi standard and at what level of service

Bmitch, I don't follow your logic. You say hotels don't have incentive to offer superior guest service in a non-revenue generating line item. Yet there are literally dozens of complimentary services offered by hotels that we expect outstanding service for, the most obvious being housekeeping. Or what about the guestroom TV? I'm not paying a fee to watch TV, yet if the TV isn't working, you better believe that's going to impact my opinion of the hotel. I don't see how this should be viewed any differently.

What is the guests expectations of the free service? Both sides here have there merits but,.... Just got back from staying at a Homewood Suites, free internet. My wife and I both had laptops working in the room, both of us were continually being booted. The property is 1.5 years old and it was only at 40% occ for the nights we were there. You get what you pay for..or don't. For me, there was really no arguement to be had with the property because the service was complimentary. Hotels are not going to continually upgrade equipment for a superior guest service experience in a non rev generating line item and why should they? complimentary is complimentary... the room was great, the staff was great, so the internet was weak. I didnt judge my experience based on that. by the way, Im available...

Since we started in 2002 with Hotel Josef, Prague we are offering WiFi or broadband free of charge. On demand we also offering iPod-docking stations on availability, free of charge for our guests.

here in italy it is quite difficult to find a hotel that gives free wifi or broadband. I strongly belive that 5 star property should give it for free not only to avoid lost bookings but also because nowdays it has become an' essential service for hotels just like the change of towels in the room.

Well, in fact, both thoughts are correct. In some countries, the set up fee is really high for wifi broadcasting. Also, if this is a real necessity, why hotel would earn more? But in that case, the fee has to be unique and not to hurt people's pocket that will pay for the service. In some places, the wifi operator is a 3rd party vendor which is not up to the hotel to charge wifi or not. We shouldn't think only ourselves, we need to think both parties to get the ideal decision. Another solution might be that we can increase the room rate a bit so we can give free internet access which will not hurt hotel guests.

why not try to look from marketing side.Yes you're right we giving that service since 2000s or past in our hotels but and they just started,it can be.They introduced their service and we discussing and people are reading thats all.

Raffles hotels & Resorts has always offered free internet for all our Residents and Patrons since long time back which indeed differentiated us from the competitors.

In response to Cool Guy comments, I can only say reality bites. It's a world of "survival of the fittest". If a hotel / chain cannot absorb the US$16,000 to provide a necessity, why build a hotel? Invest it somewhere else. All I want to say is that if a hotel / chain still think they can continue ignoring this necessity, keep holding on. There must be one or two travellers who do not need wifi / HSIA.

Corozal Bay Resort a small 10 unit botique hotel located in Corozal Town, Belize (central america) has had free wifi available since we opened in 2000. We were the first property in all of Belize to offer this service.

It's a little naive to compare Wifi with running water and maid service my friend. People have to pay for broadband / wireless use, installation and service at home so why would it be "

Thanks for being lead and saying it out loud. In Thailand only few hotels offer free wireless internet access for guest. Those are not even 5 Star hotels. What shangri-la has done and annouced would have made other 5 star to review their policy. Internet aceess should be atno charge to guests like hot and cold water in the guest rooms. Thanks Mr. Kirby. KVS/Thailand.

I blogged about this great facility in July 2008 : www.wiwihblogs.com/terence/index.html Seems someone is listening....

Dear Sirs, Free WiFi. Great. But who is going to support the cost of operating the state of the art equipment? Some country, just to get a stable line would cost USD16,000. Can the sales of rooms be able to cover this? What about future improvements? Managements will only improve revenue generating items. So where does this put the WiFi equipment?

We at Swissotels and Resorts are offering this facility in all our China properties and are looking at having it in all our other hotels worldwide as well . S

Refuse to book out of principle? Really?? I believe Sun City flourished during the height of Apartheid. Not a convincing argument. But it seems like your crusade is a hit with some sales representatives and other writers. In reality, you are ignorant of market conditions and lack an understanding of hotel management. Bottom line: people will pay for goods worth paying for. High-end hotels have invested $100K+ in equipment, $1,000s monthly for a Help Desk / network management contract, and $100s monthly for bandwidth. At a high-end hotel you are assured Internet access will be delivered in parity with the other services provided. At a limited service hotel with free Internet... good luck.

Ever since Wifi/Broadband has been available we have offered it free no charges in all our properties and shopping complexes its high time now that all hospiltality profesionals meet the guest expectations and offer the service withouyt charge

Saddam Kirby? Really? I haven't heard that one since like 1991...

Thanks for the note, Stacey. You guys were way ahead of the curve on this--kudos to you! Hopefully more and more of your colleagues will come around to that point of view before too long.

Luxury brands are going to have to do a lot more than that to fix their issues these days. AIG being the focal point of the common consumer's anger concerning the bail out, luxury group bookings are way, way down with no sign of recovery. My view is that this is an isolated decision by a niche market player that will not trickle down to the upscale brands and probably not even spread to other luxury brands.

Dear Adam, I am the Public Relations Manager at Park Hyatt Chicago. We opened in 2000 and have been offering complimentary internet service and WiFi since day one. As a luxury hotel, we pride ourselves on providing the highest level of service and we have always felt that something as simple as internet service should always be a part of that experience. It's not just a new thing to bring in new customers, it's just who we are as a property and brand. Stacey