 doppler
join:2003-03-31
Blue Point, NY | Let it be free With the cost of rooms these days.
It should be free | |
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 | mospam
join:2004-09-05
Lakeland, FL | Re: Let it be free sleep in your car | |
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| | sat
join:2001-01-25
WA
| Re: Let it be free said by mospam  :sleep in your car Well said - cant believe the statement "When you check into a hotel, you don't pay $8 per day for television service and hot water, so why isn't broadband included in the cost of the room?" - WTF is up with everyone? Dont they understand the rent included the TV, etc.? You can either pay for broadband as you go, or pay more for the room (even if you dont use the internet connection).
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Just got a Dell 2001FP 20.1" LCD Monitor (16ms) and luving it!  | |
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golden eagle
Aquila chrysaetos
Premium
join:2002-08-06
On a cliff
clubs:
| I think in time they will all offer it fo free. The cost of BB is dropping by the minute, it just makes sense to provide the service to their customers. Of course it's not going to be an elaborate/secure network but it'll be free.
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Support Our Troops. Now more than ever! | |
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Anon_Name
| Re: Let it be free If the price is dropping by the minute, then right about now, they should be paying us to use it  | |
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manfmmd
Premium
join:2003-01-14
Earth
clubs:
| Blah, Blah They roll the costs of TV and hot water into the Hotel Room fee. I guess it would better to charge those people that do not use the Hotel's Wireless service, roll it into the bill and make the people that use it happy.....naw....maybe not.
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Bill Clinton was given $8,000,000 to write his personal memoirs. Hillary Clinton was given $12,000,000 to write her personal memoirs.
I find it funny seeing as they spent 8 years saying, "I don't recall." | |
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Rhobite
Premium
join:2002-02-24
Cambridge, MA
clubs:
| Re: Blah, Blah It would be fine if they just charged reasonable rates.. Marriott charges $3.95 for the first minute, and $.25 - $1.00 for each additional minute. That's insanity. I pay $30 a month for the same service at home.
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Jimmysquid.com - I take pictures. | |
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sbrook
Premium,Mod
join:2001-12-14
H0H 0H0
 ·Rogers Hi-Speed
| Re: Blah, Blah And many upmarket hotels charge at least 50c for LOCAL calls, let alone the exhorbitant mark up on long distance. They charge $2 for a can of soda pop that other hotels charge $1.25 for, that you can get in stores for less than 75c. And they still pay their staff minimum wages.
The upmarket hotel rip off is ridiculous ... one already pays through the nose for the room. | |
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bhan261
join:2001-02-12
New York, NY | That's not my experience with Marriott. I travel a lot on business and stay at Marriott and Courtyard by Marriott. Within the past year, I haven't had to pay extra for high-speed access at any of them. | |
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| | | stufried
Premium
join:2003-10-13
 ·Verizon BroadbandA..
| Re: Blah, Blah At Courtyard's this is free. At Marriot Hotels (proper), they have several pay plans. None of the plans are particularly great. The best of the lot is $9 flat a day and you also get unlimited domestic long distance in your room. The hotels tend to use iPass and you can sometimes get a better deal that way. | |
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Derch
Premium
join:2004-10-16
Tulsa, OK | Money I used to work for a company that sold wireless solutions to hotels that offered the wireless as a paid service. It's a way for hotels to gain revenue, plain and simple. | |
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AkumalDave
Life's A Beach
Premium,MVM
join:2001-04-20
Minneapolis, MN
| Competitive Advantage said by Derch :I used to work for a company that sold wireless solutions to hotels that offered the wireless as a paid service. It's a way for hotels to gain revenue, plain and simple. Operative words being "USED TO"? When first proposed, it made perfect sense for hotels to outsource their high speed services and simply wrap their profit around the cost, to be passed on to the customer.
That was then. This is now.
Nowadays, one of the best ways to attract and retain customers is to provide FREE high speed access. This has become a Competitive Advantage rather than a Profit Center. If you've got a choice between two roughly equivalent properties, which one will you stay at - the one that tries to charge an additional $10-15 for HSI or the one with the big "FREE HIGH SPEED INTERNET ACCESS" banner? Thought so.
As a middle ground, HSI is a great perk to offer repeat customers (i.e. part of a chain's loyalty program).
Dave
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"...enjoy every sandwich..." Warren Zevon 1947-2003 | |
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Derch
Premium
join:2004-10-16
Tulsa, OK | Re: Competitive Advantage They have no choice, they must outsource to produce profits. Most hotels still do, unless it's a 5 star hotel with their own IT department. | |
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DrewCapu
Giant Diehard
join:2001-12-19
California
clubs:
| I agree.
If I'm planning to stay anywhere more than one night, one of the things I'd look for is Free Wi-Fi.
There was one hotel I stayed at last year that had it free in the lobby. I didn't even realize it til the last day I was there (mostly because I was too busy with other stuff). What surprised me though was that they were offering it for free for only one year, my guess, is to try to get an idea for how much it is used.
It's still more convenient, though, when WiFi is offered for free in-room.
I've heard some horror stories from friends that've stayed at hotels that had free wi-fi but it wasn't set up quite right (constant disconnects / lease renews / having to reboot to get ip again / etc), but I'm sure it's because most hotels out there are still learning.
Remember when those "Free HBO" signs were attractive?
Well, "Free WiFi" will be the same. | |
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SSX4life
Premium
join:2004-02-13
·RoadRunner Cable
| Makes sense Unfournatly this will take forever to intergrate due to lack of wiring being run to the rooms. I recently stayed in a day's in that had 3 WEP's in each part of the building to cover the entire 3 floors as well as each room for wireless..... too bad they left them all open and unencrypted. Guess what the default gateway and password to each router was.  Admin / Admin
And yet the digital darkages remains in 98% of all society. I thought about saying something but I decided to just check my mail and get on with more important things like sleep.
--SSX--
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New PC Setup
Asus A8V rev 2.0
AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 3200+ 90nm
Radeon 9800 Pro
2 X 36.5 gig Western Digital Raptors in Raid - 0
1 gig OCZ 3500 memory
Anime-4ever.org | |
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| coop_dog
join:2004-08-12
Orangeville, ON
1 edit | Re: Makes sense So these people had spent the money to bring you free internet into your room and you go and f*ck around with their system. OK i see that it is a stupid thing to have this open but, think of the next person to go use it, it may be f*cked because of people like you. If they don't know enough to secure it then they will not know enough to fix what ever problems to may have caused them. Now people like me will have to pay for it because people like you cause them to train people to fix the problems.
just because you can....
Thanks for that
Mike Cooper | |
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DaDogs
Semper Vigilantis
Premium
join:2004-02-28
Deltaville, VA
| Re: Makes sense said by coop_dog :So these people had spent the money to bring you free internet into your room and you go and f*ck around with their system. OK i see that it is a stupid thing to have this open but, think of the next person to go use it, it may be f*cked because of people like you. If they don't know enough to secure it then they will not know enough to fix what ever problems to may have caused them. Now people like me will have to pay for it because people like you cause them to train people to fix the problems. just because you can.... Thanks for that Mike Cooper Gawd, Mike if I had had a six pack last night, I'd have sworn I wrote that and forgot about it...
In other words, lighten up. He was wrong to not fix their passwords, but maybe he did. Other than that he did nothing wrong.
In the same position, I would have changed their default passwords and continued to march. The only reason I would have changed the default passwords is so that nobody could disable the service. Now I understand that they would then have had to reset the routers to get into them, but that takes only a few seconds and since nothing else would have changed, there would have been no other problems.
All those things aside, my concern is more for the security of the users who associate with an unknown network at a large hotel.
Whatever.
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I'd rather chew sand than watch sixty seconds of 60 minutes. | |
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| | | coop_dog
join:2004-08-12
Orangeville, ON
| Re: Makes sense My point is that everyone is always asking for cheaper/free service. As soon as they get it the first thing they do is try and mess with it. If it was my hotel after spending money to keep customers happy like that I would say to bad for them an the toll the service. Then again I wouldn;t be stupid enough to have it unsecure in the first place.
Mike Cooper | |
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| | | | cmaenginsb
Premium,MVM
join:2001-03-19
Palmdale, CA
| Re: Makes sense Mike please note that this guy didn't do anything. All he did was poke around.
Of course the not doing anything extends itself to warning the hotel chain about the unsecured wireless.
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CCNA, Comtrain Certified Tower Climber | |
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Kardinal
Canadair CT-114 Tutor
Premium
join:2001-02-04
N of 49th
clubs:
| Re: Makes sense It depends on the hotel chain and how much they want business. I usually stay in Starwood (Westin/Sheraton) or Fairmont hotels and while the buildings aren't new (I've stayed in a few in the past couple of months that were built in 1928, 1951, and 1977 respectively) they all had Ethernet in the rooms. Also, while they they advertise a fee for broadband in your room, if you are a member of their 'frequent guest' you almost always get it as complimentary rather than with a cost.
»www.sheratontoronto.com/
The Sheraton Centre in downtown Toronto has WiFi throughout the common areas, bars and convention spaces and Ethernet in the rooms (at least the ones I stay in). No matter where I go in the hotel (even by the waterfall in the courtyard), I'm connected.
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"I'd sure look like a fool, dead in a ditch somewhere with a mind full of chemicals like some cheese-eating highschool boy" - TPOH
Join Team Helix | |
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Maggs
Premium
join:2002-11-29
Woodside, NY
·RCN CABLE
| $15 HSIA I used to intern in a hotel that charged $15 for HSIA. You have a captive audience in a business hotel. So they will pay it. Try $250 for wireless access. Yes, folks $250
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Will do anything for new job, and health plan. Someone get me out of hell. | |
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Rob
In Deo speramus, God Bless the USA
Premium
join:2001-08-25
Kendall, FL
·Comcast
| Free? More like included.. Nothing is free. The cost of access would be figured into the cost of the room. Why should guest A have to pay the same cost for the room as a Guest B who will be using the internet?
Unless there is a computer in the room w/ access, then it should be an add'tl fee.
As far as tv channels, they all suck.
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They cannot destroy our society, they cannot destroy our believe in the democratic way. They can destroy buildings, they can kill people and we will be sadden by these tragedies but they will never be allowed to kill the spirit of democracy! God Bless! | |
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dadkins
Can you do Blu?
Premium,MVM
join:2003-09-26
Hercules, CA
·Comcast
| Look at it this way... ...most Hotels/Motels are grouped together(usually), Brand "A" has FREE internet access(wired or wireless... doesn't matter). Brand "B" has access for $x.xx, Brand "C" has NO access.
Which one *YOU* choose is up to you. No one is forcing anyone else to pay for anything. I use FREE access fairly often(local UPS store/coffee shop/???)...
Free attracts potential customers. From a business standpoint, this is a good gamble.
Free is good! Good for "Business X", Good for me/you/us!
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No Firefox here, move along! | |
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The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium
join:2001-07-24
Omaha, NE
clubs:
 ·ViaTalk
| I don't like it, but it's nothing new! I remember a time when hotels had locks on the TV's and you had to rent a key to turn them on.
At the time it was like $0.75/day I remember my parents not paying for it on vacation because "We won't be in the room anyway"
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Please sign the Bobb4MVM Petition at »www.bobb4mvm.com | |
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jtudor
Xm 60's On 6 Freak
Premium,MVM
join:2002-12-07
Morganton, NC
| Re: I don't like it, but it's nothing new! I remember worse than that. going on vacation with my parents staying in some motels that charged $0.25 / half hour.
We rarely paid for it. Oh yeah, that was strictly Black and White too.
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Best of luck
"Do, or Do not, there is no try!" Yoda
I will love my ANGEL until the end of time. She is my Princess.
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The Beer
I Love It When A Plan Comes Together
Premium
join:2001-07-24
Omaha, NE
clubs: | Re: I don't like it, but it's nothing new! Upon reflection is was a Motel 6 in Ft Collins, CO in about 1981-1982
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Please sign the Bobb4MVM Petition at »www.bobb4mvm.com | |
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milnoc
join:2001-03-05
H3B | Free HSIE I stayed at a Comfort Inn in North Bay, Ontario not that long ago. They had free HSIE. Just plug in and go!
And the room wasn't any more expensive than in any other town. | |
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Nick
Purveyor of common sense
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| Being a frequent traveller... Most of people posting comments are semi-clueless as to how this grand system works.
Each brand has several tiers within their hotel structure.
For example, Marriott has:
Marriott Hotels & Resorts
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts
Renaissance Hotels & Resorts
Courtyard
Residence Inn
Fairfield Inn
Marriott Conference Centers
TownePlace Suites
SpringHill Suites
Marriott Vacation Club International
The Ritz-Carlton
Marriott ExecuStay
Marriott Executive Apartments
Out of that list...I know for a fact that you can typically get free high speed internet at
Courtyards, Residence Inns, SpringHill Suites. These are business traveller oriented hotels so free HSI = trying to lure in the frequent travellers like me. I would likely wind up spending my company's dollar in a hotel that provides low rates, free HSI and other amenities that I might be interested in. Such as a free Gold's membership when I stay at the hotel.
On the other side of the coin, Marriott's, Ritz-Carlton's and JW's probably will not offer you free HSI because they cater to a different sector of travellers. People in the upper ranks of a company (Directors, CxO's and whatnot) will not mind spending 10$ a night for HSI. Vacationers might also spend 10$ a night to stay connected because this might be only a 70$ expedenture on a 4000$ vacation.
The "free" broadband model has been in place for over a year now and more and more places are moving towards that. Also, a lot of people who travel, do not pay for hotels at all. The company they work for will typically pick up such incidental costs.
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Stupidity, like hydrogen, is one of the basic building blocks of the Universe.
I'm re-moo-ing!!!
My Gallery * My Journal | |
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| RadioDoc
58ef2c0
Premium,ExMod 2000-03
join:2000-05-11
 ·AT&T Midwest
| Re: Being a frequent traveller... said by Nick :Most of people posting comments are semi-clueless as to how this grand system works. That's not all they are clueless about...it's an epidemic around here: Post first, think later if at all.
Anyway, I agree with your analysis 100%. Add several Comfort Inns, Super 8's and other low-end establishments who have discovered "free" wireless access draws customers they might not otherwise get.
Out of the five places I stayed at in 2004, including the above mentioned Comfort Inn in Wisconsin, a local chain in Minnesota and a couple of Marriott operations out west all five had "free" access via wireless, Ethernet or some HPNA-like system. Nobody charged anything extra. Even some airports are getting into the wireless act. MSP for instance has wireless coverage for about $7/day which comes in handy when you are stuck there for 12 hours...
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Too many people and not enough eyes to see. º Too many churches and not enough truth. | |
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footballdude
Premium
join:2002-08-13
Imperial, MO
| Re: Being a frequent traveller... said by RadioDoc :it's an epidemic around here: Post first, think later if at all. Aw, you beat me to it.
Internet forums are kind of like CB radios were in the 70s. Everyone feels the need to push the button but very few have anything to say. | |
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DrTCP
Yours truly
Premium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX | I have stayed in 2 Quality Inn's an a Comfort Inn during past holidays. Comfort Inn only offered a kiosk at the lobby. Both Quality Inn's had free HSI in rooms.
Both Quality Inn and Comfort Inn are part of Choice Hotels. | |
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Nick
Purveyor of common sense
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY
clubs: | Re: Being a frequent traveller... I'm not familiar with their tiering but I would suspect the Comfort Inn's are in a higher tier | |
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DrTCP
Yours truly
Premium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX
| Re: Being a frequent traveller... said by Nick :I'm not familiar with their tiering but I would suspect the Comfort Inn's are in a higher tier From the actual quality of hotels I've stayed I would say Quality Inn is a higher tier. | |
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haplo2112
join:2003-05-12
Charlton, MA | Holiday Inn The Holiday Inn I stayed at in Wine Country of NY State had free In room Ethernet and wireless in the court yard...
I figure if Holiday Inn has it, it can't be far away for the other chains. | |
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GeekNJ
Premium
join:2000-09-23
Waldwick, NJ
| . Got a friend in the business of setting up hotels with wireless access. Almost every one of them they setup isn't charging. Many more hotels they call on are already in the process of adding it.
One hotel says the occupancy rate increased drastically after they noted on their sign that they had free wireless access.
I think it'll be like TV - everyone will have it for free eventually. I know when I travel on business, the hotel needs to have broadband access. If it's free, that's great, but on business, I need access so the cost of it is part of doing business.
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Tweaked your OOL connection? | Mail Parse | Speed Converter | |
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Nick
Purveyor of common sense
Premium,VIP,MVM
join:2000-10-29
Smithtown, NY
clubs:
| Re: . said by GeekNJ :I need access so the cost of it is part of doing business. Exactly. | |
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cgw123
join:2002-09-13
Moraga, CA
| speaking of clueless I find that most places I stay now include free broadband, but about half the time the clip on the ethernet cable is broken off because some clueless user yanked it out of his/her machine. I carry a cable, but often the connection at the wall isn't standard or is behind something heavy. Maybe if hotels used industrial strength cables that break the connector in the laptop, this problem would go away. | |
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DrTCP
Yours truly
Premium,ExMod 1999-04
join:1999-11-09
Round Rock, TX
| Re: speaking of clueless said by cgw123 :I find that most places I stay now include free broadband, but about half the time the clip on the ethernet cable is broken off because some clueless user yanked it out of his/her machine. I carry a cable, but often the connection at the wall isn't standard or is behind something heavy. Maybe if hotels used industrial strength cables that break the connector in the laptop, this problem would go away. I carry my own cable as well but I will carry a longer one next time. The last hotel I stayed was a Quality Inn without an Ethernet cable. The socket was behind the TV which required a call to office to find where it is and a bit of muscle to move the furniture a bit forward to be able to plug the cable. | |
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bit_junkie
join:2004-05-04
Maricopa, AZ
| I recently... was on a company weekend getaway in Sedona,AZ with my wifes work footing the bill
anyways the place was call Enchantment resort, and as someone mentioned they had the Tut system installed for HSIA, it was free(The Nintendo64 in the room was 6.95 for an hour)it was fast and was kinda nice to be able to connect to some internet radio stations to listen to when i was actually in my room, which wasnt that often.
i believe its rolled into the cost of the room, but im not sure as someone else was footing the bill. | |
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chesney09
Premium
join:2004-07-26
Redford, MI
clubs:
| Telephony used to be a source of revenue..... Keep that in mind... That used to be a big source of revenue for hotels... And since the Cellular Boom.. they have lost that.. The hotels thought Inet service would be a logical source of Revenue to replace it.. Can ya blame them?
All it takes though is one big chain to give free access and they will all eventually follow suit as to stay competitive.
Pretty much typical... | |
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JDawgers
@attbi.com
| Re: Telephony used to be a source of revenue..... They used to make a killing on telephone calls. Thats why they now charge for local calls and have added fees for going over 30 minutes in alot of hotels (so people using dial up can't just stay connected without getting charged ... I always ask this before booking a hotel since I like leaving my laptop connected on the road and this affects where I stay). | |
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ebubman
join:2002-01-17
Enola, PA | omni hotel has it we like to stay at omni hotels; they have included wifi internet access. what i find interesting is that it is the same fast speed up as down. wow. bub | |
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bigdaddy175
join:2003-05-08
Miami, FL | Re: omni hotel has it It sometimes depends if you're looking for Quality Inn or Comfort Inn. | |
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der_panzer
join:2003-12-18
Lebanon, TN
| It is free... If you want to borrow someone else's wireless.
Chances are that if you are on the 3rd floor or higher (maybe even lower) and have a window or balcony to the outside, you can find someone's wireless to leech off of for the duration of your stay.
In some cities, I'd be willing to bet that you could find hundreds of out-of-the-box unsecured APs from a hotel balcony with a can-tenna. You might not even need the external antenna with any luck.
A one hour outing in Nashville with my mobile 2.4GHz antenna and Kismet netted more than 2000 APs in one area. About 1/2 are unsecured, 1/3 with default settings. That's just driving around on major streets. | |
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