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September 13, 2003
Future: Free Hotel Internet?
The evolution of data network services in hotels has been interesting to watch (and participate in).
In the early 90's, traveling meant hijacking the RJ-11 out of the back of the room phone, hooking up the dongle to your PCMCIA modem, and repeated iterations of a combination of digits and punctuation (especially bad if you had to use a calling card) to get an outside line dialed up at 14.4 or 28.8 kb/s.
Hotels caught on to this. Over the last decade, they have tried installing WebTV-type Internet terminals (I saw few, and they didn't last long), added "data" ports to their phones, put outlets near the desk (they probably got tired of net-savvy customers rearranging furniture to reach outlets), and changed their local calling charges to inhibit (or profit from) Internet users (too bad no Internet dialers have the ability to hang up after 55 minutes and re-dial, to automatically circumvent the 60-minute call charge many hotels have).
Most recently, many business-class hotels have started charging a flat-rate, non-optional "convenience fee" charge of as much as $10/day for unlimited free local calling, sometimes unlimited national calling, and other stuff that used to be free or pay-per-use. And most business-class hotels have partnered with companies like STSN, WayPort, and many others, to provide in-room "broadband" Internet service for about $10/day.
The last two hotel stays I've had make me believe that in the highly-competitive hotel industry, Internet may become the one service that becomes an ammenity included with the price of your room at business-class hotels. And with a decent Internet connection, I can do VoIP for any calls that I don't want to use my cell phone for.
In Seattle, I stayed at the Watertown Inn in Seattle. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my $109/night room included free broadband Internet. Now it wasn't the fastest thing; they just had a DSL line, so things got a bit slow in the evening. But it was much better than dial-up.
Tonight, I am staying at Marriott Courtyard La Guardia. For my $3.99/day (non-optional) "convenience fee", I get free local calls and a 10Mb/s Internet connection. That's a convenience fee I'm not unhappy to pay.
(It's not a hotel, but my experience finding wireless Internet at a KOA is also relevant).
But I'm paying $3.99/day for what many hotels still charge $17/day or more. I like where this is headed. Maybe my Watertown (and KOA) experience will become more common, and staying at a hotel won't be the painful (dial-up) experience it has over the last decade.
Posted by pete at September 13, 2003 8:54 PM