More WiFi Access In Hotels

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://rss.com.com/2100-1039-986273.html">http://rss.com.com/2100-1039-986273.html</a><br /><br />"Marriott International and Intel on Thursday announced a campaign to promote high-speed wireless access to the Internet at about 400 hotels in the United States, Canada and several countries in Europe. Marriott, based in Washington, D.C., said the co-marketing agreement with Intel will include advertising and direct mail that inform travelers of its wireless network service built on 802.11b technology."<br /><br />Marriot International is the owner of Marriott, Renaissance, Courtyard, Residence Inn and other hotels in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.<br /><br />On the face of it, this sound like great news, but when you read the fine print, I can't see using it that much. "Travelers with laptops that have wireless capability will pay $2.95 in the United States for the first 15 minutes, and 25 cents for each additional minute." I'm not saying they should give it away, but something reasonable like a $5/day all-you-can-eat plan is far more attractive. Paying by the minute or in 15 minute blocks is insane. Get online, suck down all of your messages, get offline, respond, get online, shoot out the replies, get off line. $6. All the while you are unable to have IM running in the background. No thanks. I'll use my GPRS connection and pay the speed penalty. Your thoughts?

[luebster]

It's just like any other new technology: Charge as much as you can for as long as you can to bleed enough green (or whatever color YOUR currency is :wink: ) out of the consumer. Like everything else, this too will come down in price. Gouge the early adopters, compete for the mainstream.

Sign me up for $5/day buffet.

[jet8810]

$5 all day sounds good to me! I would definitely buy that, assuming you could get WiFi throughout the entire hotel, of course. Actually, if it was aroudn the entire hotel (out by pool, in lobby, in room, restuarant, ect.) I would pay $10 a day, $5 if it was in lobby and room. Depends on the coverage IMO... :P

[Tom_Gilheany]

Current going rate is $10/day for high speed broadband access in-room.
(At least in most parts of US I"ve been traveling).

I would like to see WiFi included in this fee, making it more likely I'll sign up. Lately I've been signing up late evening, and using it early evening th following day (making it come out to $5/day).

-->Tom

[vincentsiaw]

$5 all you can eat plan is attractive, if by block for 15 minutes is insanely expensive 8O

[Ed Hansberry]

If these guys were smart, they would jack up the price of the room $10 per night and advertise WiFi/wired broadband as free. Then everyone pays for it whether theyuse it or not, and they would have a massivly loyal group of consumers. Namely, me!

Everyone hates to be nickeled and dimed. This is why Disney did away with their pay per ride at Disney World. Cut out the crap, jack up the prices at the gate and everyone is happy.

[NeoAxim]

I would love $5 a day wifi access in a hotel. But I think to be more realistic, at least in the early stages, $10 a day is the best we can expect.
Currently wifi service is considered a premium and when you have a premium service expect it to be at a premium price.
A friend of mine who attended the Black Hat conference in Seattle this week was IMing me from the airport while waiting for his flight home. I think he mentioned paying 7 dollars for a few hours use, possibly even the day (not that many spend a WHOLE day in an airport barring bad weather or some other "event"). Personally if I was sitting in an airport I would gladly fork over the 7 bucks to surf, email and chat while waiting for a flight. And I would most probably do so for 5 or 10 bucks a day in a hotel. But $2.95 for 15 minutes and 25 cents each additional?!?!
I think that is a bit much, reminds of me of the old dial up days when you got a few hours from AOL and then paid an arm and a leg for each additional hour. Man, way back then when I lived at home and didn’t have a job my Mom was not fond my internet use! :wink:

[bdegroodt]

If these guys were smart, they would jack up the price of the room $10 per night and advertise WiFi/wired broadband as free. Then everyone pays for it whether theyuse it or not, and they would have a massivly loyal group of consumers. Namely, me!

Everyone hates to be nickeled and dimed. This is why Disney did away with their pay per ride at Disney World. Cut out the crap, jack up the prices at the gate and everyone is happy.There aren't enough of them to call it a completely national chain, but many of the W Hotels do exactly this. Of course, perks are the theme at the W.

The other thing to remember (As I harken back to the days of working for someone else...) is that business travelers are the most likely users of this and the least likely to be so price sensitive. Being on my own now, I say $5! :D It's no worse than a plane leaving with an empty seat. It's a commodity that can't be recovered, so you better do what you can to get each room activated. On a trip to Canada not long ago, I avoided using the hotel phones for calls back to the U.S using their broadband connection.

[szamot]

Fairmont Hotels which owns such wonders as Banff Springs, and the Plaza in New York has wireless in all of its hotels in the public areas. All of the hotels also sport in room high speed internet access. An average price is about $10/day and I hear that soon you will be able to go from your room to wireless at no additional cost, they even provide free wireless cards in some hotels. Wireless printing will also being offered very soon. I think $10 is good and not too much considering what it cost to put this in, especially the wired solution to the rooms. I know Fairmont and Delta, which is owned by Farimont, uses Cisco BBSM which is not the cheapest of the lot but it is very reliable.

[Ed Hansberry]

There aren't enough of them to call it a completely national chain, but many of the W Hotels do exactly this. Of course, perks are the theme at the W.
THe "W" in Seattle is $10/day, which I think is a bit high. I only spend a few hrs in the room, early in the morning and late at night. It works out to $3/hr or so. Too much IMHO. But given their nightly rates, if they crammed it in there, I'd never see it and would feel better about it. As it was, I was there 6 days and only used broadband 3 days for $30. That is a month of my ISP at home! The other days I used my cell phone for quick email via bluetooth.

[rbrome]

I've stayed in Best Westerns that had $5/day broadband (ethernet). Good stuff! I think Mariott's rates are a little much...

[szamot]

If these guys were smart, they would jack up the price of the room $10 per night and advertise WiFi/wired broadband as free. Then everyone pays for it whether theyuse it or not, and they would have a massivly loyal group of consumers. Namely, me!

Everyone hates to be nickeled and dimed. This is why Disney did away with their pay per ride at Disney World. Cut out the crap, jack up the prices at the gate and everyone is happy.


It is not that easy Ed, most hotels set their rates at least 1 year in advance changing it the last minutes is not that ease. Plus if you consider that only about 3-7% of all occupied rooms are using HSIA most people would not pay to stay at the hotel simply because of the rates. People are very aware of what room costs and room rates are the biggest driving force in decision making when it comes to a business travelers. Fairmont for example provides 24/7 help desk to get people connected. BBSM is very forgiving but there is always a person or two who are just plain clueless. It all costs money and the only fair way of recovering it is to have those who use it pay for it.

[Sven Johannsen]

THe "W" in Seattle is $10/day, which I think is a bit high. I only spend a few hrs in the room, early in the morning and late at night.

Our stay was likely not typical though. Most of the time when I am out on business, my morning doesn't start till 9 or so and I am back in the room after dinner by 7 or 8. That leaves a reasonable amount of time for Net work. Unlike our 6AM to 10PM schedule out there.

Seems the going rate is $10 a day, timed from check in time to check out time (usually noon to noon). I think they are off the deep end with their minute by minute rate structure. I gotta go with, add it to the room rate and market it as a benny.

[igreen]

I wish I could remeber the URL for an article I read somewhere about a hotel that was throwing in WiFi access for free, in fact they went so far to explain they saved $250,000 by going the WiFi route as opposed to running Cat-5 to every room. I agree with others on this post.....$5 tops, but I'd prefer to see it wrapped into the price of a room and made a selling point for the guest to consider when choosing a hotel.

[igreen]

It is not that easy Ed, most hotels set their rates at least 1 year in advance changing it the last minutes is not that ease. Plus if you consider that only about 3-7% of all occupied rooms are using HSIA most people would not pay to stay at the hotel simply because of the rates. People are very aware of what room costs and room rates are the biggest driving force in decision making when it comes to a business travelers. Fairmont for example provides 24/7 help desk to get people connected. BBSM is very forgiving but there is always a person or two who are just plain clueless. It all costs money and the only fair way of recovering it is to have those who use it pay for it.

I think that rationale only applies to lowend hotels....I mean I've never seen a breakdown of where my $100 goes when I rent a room. $5 for towels, $3.50 for clean sheets, $2 water....etc. The fact is...the entire hotel bill is one "hidden" charge.

[ctmagnus]

Fairmont Hotels which owns such wonders as Banff Springs, and the Plaza in New York has wireless in all of its hotels in the public areas. All of the hotels also sport in room high speed internet access. An average price is about $10/day and I hear that soon you will be able to go from your room to wireless at no additional cost, they even provide free wireless cards in some hotels. Wireless printing will also being offered very soon. I think $10 is good and not too much considering what it cost to put this in, especially the wired solution to the rooms. I know Fairmont and Delta, which is owned by Farimont, uses Cisco BBSM which is not the cheapest of the lot but it is very reliable.

Chateau Lake Louise:

SSID=*****
MAC=*****
Vendor=*****

I'll find out what Banff Springs does in a couple of weeks.

:twisted:

Edited by Moderator for content. 2/28/03 16:04 est

[garrans]

I'd like the option of a "upgraded" room price at checkin. When I'm on business travel I charge in the room, charging in extra's is tough. However if, when I check in they say "would you like Wi-Fi included in your room rate for $10 more" I'd be all over it.

Saves me time and hassle when / if I needed to explain why I'm trying to charge in internet access when there is a local dial in number available (after all post 5pm any time I spend on work is just for the glory of the company, they don't pay me, so what do they care if I have to work slower).

[dochall]

Just got back from Florida. The Radisson suites on Marco Island had BB access at $10/day, though no wifi. I considered that to be pretty reasonable.

I have done a lot of business travel and a business traveller I hate the huge charges that hotels put on a lot of things. As a business traveller I'm not too sensitive to a fixed charge but I hate being ripped off whether the money is my own or my company's.

Per minute charges are too unpredictable.The killer always was phone calls until mobiles really took off. I can't understand why they don't realise that if they charged a reasonable amount rather than the massive unit charging they would probably find their income from phones increase as lots of people would still prefer to use a land line rather than a mobile.

I also dislike the price hike on food from restaurant to room service. I don't mind paying a fee to get somebody to deliver and collect it but I do object where you're screwed for the price of dishes and then a fee is added and then a compulsory gratuity. I have never actually gone to a hotel restaraunt ordered and then asked for a tray when it arrived but I'm always tempted. :D

[ricksfiona]

I wish I could remeber the URL for an article I read somewhere about a hotel that was throwing in WiFi access for free, in fact they went so far to explain they saved $250,000 by going the WiFi route as opposed to running Cat-5 to every room. I agree with others on this post.....$5 tops, but I'd prefer to see it wrapped into the price of a room and made a selling point for the guest to consider when choosing a hotel.
Eventually, hotels will discount the price once they recoup their hardware cost. I think $10 is totally reasonable until they make their money back. Once they reach that point, I would say $5 is very reasonable.

$5 is way cheap. No quality hotel is going that cheap.

[PhatCohiba]

Is it $10/ room or $10 / device. Here more than anywhere else, most of you would have at least 2 devices (laptop & pda) with WiFi. Heven forbid that Jason was sharing a room with Ed, they'd have like 20 devices :rofl: This is the real reason that ed wants free WiFi.


If I had to pick, I'd only pay for my laptop.

ps. Go ahead make me respond, I'm on 99 posts and I want 100!!!

[Imageman]

I am a business traveler. I travel about 35 weeks a year. I ALWAYS stay in the Hilton, because of several reasons- but I tell you what.

If Marriot had an option to pay like $50 a month, or $300 a year, I would never ever ever stay in the Hilton again.

and I think I am not alone here.

[icatar]

Maybe OT: But how do the hotels secure/monitor their WiFi connections? With the nature of wireless, how hard is it to sniff the ID and get/make up a valid IP address and surf for free? It's not like an ethernet connection where they are positive that you are using your computer from your room. Do you have to register your MAC or something?

[disconnected]

I also wish they'd charge by room or even by person, instead of by device. I tend to use my laptop in the hotel room, but would like to use my PPC in the public areas for the same price.

[szamot]

It is not that easy Ed, most hotels set their rates at least 1 year in advance changing it the last minutes is not that ease. Plus if you consider that only about 3-7% of all occupied rooms are using HSIA most people would not pay to stay at the hotel simply because of the rates. People are very aware of what room costs and room rates are the biggest driving force in decision making when it comes to a business travelers. Fairmont for example provides 24/7 help desk to get people connected. BBSM is very forgiving but there is always a person or two who are just plain clueless. It all costs money and the only fair way of recovering it is to have those who use it pay for it.

I think that rationale only applies to lowend hotels....I mean I've never seen a breakdown of where my $100 goes when I rent a room. $5 for towels, $3.50 for clean sheets, $2 water....etc. The fact is...the entire hotel bill is one "hidden" charge.

No, Fairmont is a high end hotel chain kind of like the Ritz.
Here is a reality check. It cost a good to better hotel an average of $20.00 US to pay for lights, laundry, taxes, house keeping and upkeep. The rest is - well you guess it profit and a fat one at that. On the top of that you get charge for movies, phone, inroom dining min delivery charge and before you know it you have to mortgage your house to spend a weekend at a nice resort. But people keep paying it, so the hotels are raising it and so on it goes in a circle.

[szamot]

I am a business traveler. I travel about 35 weeks a year. I ALWAYS stay in the Hilton, because of several reasons- but I tell you what.

If Marriot had an option to pay like $50 a month, or $300 a year, I would never ever ever stay in the Hilton again.

and I think I am not alone here.

I know that the Fairmont offers free access if you are their frequent staying guest, that's why I only stay with them. On the top of that free internet and free goodies in your room when you check it. It is a smart way of doing business. And I am all for free stuff.

[Roosterman]

Last year I had to spend about four months traveling to Chicago. We were staying down in the Loop and the most convient hotel was a Renisance. They offered highspeed ethernet connection but it was about $8-$10 per night. Because we had 12 of us staying there, we were able to negotiate the nightly charge from $225 to $192 with free internet and long distance :lol: . That was about the only thing that made it livable for that length of time. At these kinds of prices throwing the internet access would be a great selling tool and build loyalty.

[Kirkaiya]

Interestingly, the pricing scheme is exactly the same as the "pay as you go" WiFi access using the T-Mobile Hotspots at Starbucks.

Since I work with my laptop at Starbucks a lot (they give me free drinks I'm there so much :-) , I use the pay-as-you-go WiFi access sometimes, and it's useful - but since when I need to use it to do something for a client, I pass the cost on, it's not such a big deal.

Anyway - since the pricing plan is the same ( $2.99 for 1st 15 min, then 25 cents/min), I wonder if Marriott is simply letting T-Mobile put their "Hotspots" in (as in, Marriott is not the one actually doing it, but T-Mobile is).

I think it sort sux - for the hotel, a T-1 line would be a fix, relatively minor expense, and they should just offer a flat-fee (like $10/day) for broadband access, whether via wireless or RJ45 Jack (LAN jack).

Anyway... I smell T-Mobile in this, maybe... anybody know either way?