This is BS (work travel related)

[Easy Mac]

OK, so I'm back in Durham NC for a week for work. Last time was nice, everything was free b/c I was with a guy with a company card. This time, I'm alone, so I have to expense everything. Whatever, thats ok, just put it on my Amex and worry about it later.

However, last time came with free breakfast, they had free internet, whatever. Now, the room is the same price (140 pre-taxes, which was put on the company's travel account, thankfully I don't have to put that on my card). However, they won't give me a free breakfast in the morning (somewhat ok, since i normally skip real breakfast, but still). But now, the internet is $10 a day. I mean, this is a 140 room, how can they not throw in internet for free. So I'm paying $10 for internet until 3 pm tomorrow. Calling the office tomorrow to see if they can work some free internet/breakfast for me.

Still, am I the only one who thinks that paying $140 for a day w/o food and internet is insane? Oh, and last time they had a free bag of popcorn and water each day. This time, nothing. And I went to get a coke out of the machine... 12 oz. can for $1. And they screwed up my room service dinner. Seriously, am I ok to feel WTF? I think when i leave they're getting a not nice comment card.

[Eaglesfan27]

I went on several business trips last year in which the hotel was more expensive than 140 and I had to pay 10 dollars or (15 in one case) per 24 hours of internet access.

[Lorena]

I'd be pretty pissed too

[Easy Mac]

the only positive is free hbo... but seeing as how i've only watched 1 episode of the sapranos in my life, i somehow think the usefulness of this will be wasted on me.

maybe i should just torrent an insane amount of data in the next 21 hours, make good use of my $10.

Oh, and i forgot my usb cable for my ipod, so i can't charge it. thankfully, there's an apple store about 10 minutes away, so i can pick up some nice things, maybe a mac mini or something

[Raiders Army]

Where are you staying? I like staying at Hawthorne Suites. It's pretty cheap during the week, they have free beer at night (along with popcorn) and a hot breakfast (not Continental).

[Eaglesfan27]

I would be pissed about them messing up my room service. I hope they comped whatever they messed up.

[Desnudo]

Is it you paying for the internet service or your company?

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Where are you staying? I like staying at Hawthorne Suites. It's pretty cheap during the week, they have free beer at night (along with popcorn) and a hot breakfast (not Continental).

doubletree.

and they said the food was comped, but i had signed a previous receipt (assuming the food was right), so who knows.

[Draft Dodger]

when we went to Bar Harbor last fall, our room was $150+, and they wanted $10 a day for the internet. (although there was a communal computer in the lobby where you could surf for free).

I just went without...but there's no way I would intentionally book at a hotel again that charges me for internet.

[MikeVick7]

Nothing unusual about the extra fee for the net. I had to deal with that in both my business trips last year.

[Celeval]

I've traveled an awful lot lately, and it's pretty standard for $10-$15 internet.

[Raiders Army]

Get some free shampoo, razors, shaving cream, and toothpaste and you'll be even.

[Masked]

I've noticed that the more expensive the hotel the more likely they are to charge for internet access.

[QuikSand]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

Still, am I the only one who thinks that paying $140 for a day w/o food and internet is insane?

I don't find that terribly objectionable, nor ridiculous. Did you/your office shop around, or just go back to the same place as always? (There generally is not much price sensitivity in the "corporate card" marketplace)

[st.cronin]

Isn't a hotel charging for internet access the same as charging for pool access? How do they justify that?

[Easy Mac]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Get some free shampoo, razors, shaving cream, and toothpaste and you'll be even.

only free shampoo, weird face cream, and soap

[lighthousekeeper]

Originally Posted by Easy Mac

only free shampoo, weird face cream, and soap

if you go to the front desk and say you forgot to bring a razor and shaving cream, they'll usually give you one for free.

[Crapshoot]

To echo sentiments - been in $400 hotels that charge for internet.

[Rizon]

If you showed this thread to 10 people say, 15 years ago, I'll bet 9 of them have their heads explode instantly.

[Rizon]

Oh, and I don't think the internet is so bad as compared to the $3 bottled water .

[MacroGuru]

Actually, most hotels have free internet now, what you need to do is ask about the internet with the front desk, if it is something they can waive or workout for frequent guests or points members, I would try that. I have to say, in all the hotels I have been in the past 2 months, most have had internet, it's just that I have been getting into the room to late to do anything with it.

Good Luck!

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Crapshoot

To echo sentiments - been in $400 hotels that charge for internet.

I'm really not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but, to me, that is just completely wrong.

[Draft Dodger]

Originally Posted by Rizon

Oh, and I don't think the internet is so bad as compared to the $3 bottled water .

or the $4 snickers bar in the room I just stayed in. But that doesn't bug me like $10 for internet.

[Celeval]

Originally Posted by st.cronin

Isn't a hotel charging for internet access the same as charging for pool access? How do they justify that?

Most of the hotels I've been in recently essentially outsource their internet. The most recent was actually the same T-Mobile wireless as Borders & Starbucks has... the plus there is that I bought a month for $40, so had a cheaper tab over the 8 nights.

Best place for internet was a Four Points by Sheraton which had free internet - could use wireless, or get a connector for wired that ran through the power system.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by Celeval

Most of the hotels I've been in recently essentially outsource their internet. The most recent was actually the same T-Mobile wireless as Borders & Starbucks has... the plus there is that I bought a month for $40, so had a cheaper tab over the 8 nights.

Best place for internet was a Four Points by Sheraton which had free internet - could use wireless, or get a connector for wired that ran through the power system.

celeval is right. it's the outsourcing that is the reason for this. at any decently sized hotel you have to figure that for them to give you internet with any degree of speed they have to have multiple broadband connections running into the hotel, if not a T-1 (for some of your larger more urban hotels i'd imagine).

and someone has to pay for that. the hotel can't eat the cost of that. so they outsource it to a provider like T-Mobile who can eat the cost as part of a "connectivity strategy" to be an internet provider with a ton of access and hopefully pick up customers with that draw.

and on top of that, your average hotel isn't going to want to pay the infrastructure costs of running their own network, or the cost of having an IT guy on call 24-7.

it's the same reason Starbucks outsources. It's not like we're sitting on a huge internet pipe just hogging it to make a buck off of it. We entered into a partnership with T-Mobile where we display their logo and essentially give them a rack in the backroom for their equipement, a rack which we are not even supposed to TOUCH. really we're just acting as a place for them to plunk an AP.

and your average hotel gets more value out of doing the same thing. because i venture to say paid vs. free internet is not the differentiator for most people in the world when choosing hotels.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Most common lately for me has been what Celeval said - outsourced & the hotel staff largely clueless about anything to do with the 'net service. And I still find $10-$15 a day more common than free. And I'll sort of echo the observation up the thread about more expensive seeming to more often charge for 'net than mid-priced hotels. It was $10 or so per day for a connection on our last Disney trip & that was with a room running about $300 per night.

I'm currently thinking about adding Hilton Garden Inns to our regular hotel choices though -- good experiences on two stays with their Gwinnett County location, including free wireless internet.

[JonInMiddleGA]

accidental double post removed

[QuikSand]

This isn't all that tough to figure out, I don't think. You have different types of hotel customers, and if you're a savvy nusiness, you treat them differently.

There are the family types -- folks who are paying their own money to stay somewhere, and generally are looking for some combination of location, price, and amenities in their hotel. For many of them, price will be a meaningful factor in their decision... and the availability of an internet connection might be important. Offering it for free may well be a meaningful factor in their decision to stay at one place over another (essentially an element of price, though there are psychological factors at work as well). But that's what you do in the hotel business -- you try to market your specific combination of location, amenities, and price to attract customers who are sensitive to those things.

There are also hotels that serve a different clientele -- the "corporate card" set. These are people who are sensitive to location in may cases, and amenities in many cases, but almost completely insensitive to price. If you're catering to that level of customer as your primary focus, the last thing you want to do is make things free or cheap. Offer services, yes, but why give people a price break if they don't respond much to high prices? It's just common sense.

Generally speaking -- if you have decided that your hotel is going to be a $400-a-night outfit, then your job is to make the experience first class for your customers, period. If you have a great location, all the better -- but it will mostly be about the quality of the stay. Good food, good in-room service, prompt attention to concerns, etc. Your goal is to have that Corporate VP say to her assistant "oh, and book me at that place again, it was great." Whether there's an extra ten bucks here or there for using the spa or the internet connection is a metter of almost no consequencce to your regular $400-hotel customer... so charge them for it.


There's nothing insidious about this, it's just how a sensibe market ought to work. For people who are sensitive to price, you try to give them a deal. For those who aren't, you don't.

[BuffaloHuskey]

If you have decent status at Marriot, Silver Elite or better, you can normally get them to comp the internet.

[Telle]

A couple of years ago I had to travel for some training for work. I stayed at a Wyndham. Upon checking in, I asked about internet access. I was told it was $10 a night, unless I was a "Wyndham by Request" member and then it would be free. Ok.. so how do I become a member? Oh, just fill out this little card. Seemed silly to me.. but hey, I'll write down my name and address on a little card to get free internet access (plus a complimentary beverage and snack).

[Daimyo]

In the last three months I spent a week each in San Jose and Miami for business and in each case the internet cost $10/day. The SJ hotel was $200/night and Miami was $400/night and both were "business class" places chosen entirely for location. Its kind of amazing how much you can charge for stuff when you know the person "buying" it doesn't actually have to pay for it.

[Crapshoot]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

I'm really not cheap by any stretch of the imagination, but, to me, that is just completely wrong.

I wasn't footing the bill- but hey - there's a market there. This was a couple of years back - but it wasn't exactly the late 90's.

[finketr]

in the "corporate card" set, i'm sure the hotels realize that those customers are going to want to hook up to the 'net regardless to send/receive email.

[Passacaglia]

What's the big deal? Just play FM instead of using the internet.