Booking a little trip with the fam over spring break. Looking at some hotels (mainstream ones…Marriott, Hyatt, etc) and was stunned to see that some are still charging for wireless internet. With 5G phones and wireless hotspots, it really doesn’t matter, but I thought hotels charging for internet was a thing of the past.
It’s 2022 and hotels are still charging for internet?
- Thread starter RattleCock
- Start date
It’s interesting too, that the charges don’t appear in the lower end of the chains (Marriot Residence or Hampton Inn), but they tack it on at the highest hotels in the group. Same thing with free breakfast or even coffee. Forget it at the top of the chain. Nickel and dime charges are so annoying, especially at that price point.
Yes, I noticed that as well. Weird. Makes you wonder what you’re paying for at the higher priced ones.
Most of the time if you are a rewards member (usually free to sign up) those charges are waived.
If it makes you feel any better, I run the AV and Conferencing operations for my employer, and we recently had a large meeting (400 ppl) for several days in a Marriott brand hotel. The hotel IT department wanted to charge us $13,000 per day to use their terrible internet.
If it makes you feel any better, I run the AV and Conferencing operations for my employer, and we recently had a large meeting (400 ppl) for several days in a Marriott brand hotel. The hotel IT department wanted to charge us $13,000 per day to use their terrible internet.
Yep....insane isn't it? It was internet for their meeting space for 400-ish people. Around 100-150 mbps with a secure SSID
It’s always been that way with the high end hotels. And pretty much all of Europe.
Corporate greed has no limits.
I stayed at a "nice" hotel last month. There was no refrigerator anywhere and they wanted me to pay like $28 to bring a mini-fridge to the room.
I'm now a lifetime Diamond member with Hilton brand hotels. I don't recall ever paying for WIFI there.
Ha, I don’t travel enough to get such fancy status!
I have stayed in hotels over that say they charge for internet, but then the desk worker just gives you a login with your room key for no charge.
from what I was reading online, the higher end hotels typically charge because the people who are staying at those hotels don’t pay attention to price.
Did this type of thing for 15 years. Most hotels were using an outfit called PSAV. I had the good fortune of one of their managers pulling me aside and telling me how to work around their little games. I had struck a friendship. He just didn't feel right about some of the things they charge for.
BTW, a lot of hotels like to charge a "resort fee" that includes internet. They are pretty tricky.
Corporate or consumer greed? You want cheap, you got it, the price listing on the internet is low but you don’t want to pay more?
Consumer, Not Corporate, "Greed" Is Ultimately Behind Layoffs
www.mackinac.org
Staying at a Hampton Inn in Atlanta right now. The invoice has a $5 “Hotel Fee” along with the assortment of city, state, and Federal taxes. I’m paying for internet one way or another even though the information brochure says free internet. Such is the lodging business.
..or sometimes you get a "resort fee". Free WiFi means they've already added it into the pricing.
It does shock me when I'm at a Ritz Carlton and internet is $15/day and they charge for every Nespresso pod I use. I guess they figure if you're throwing down so much for the room, money isn't an issue. But I'm usually at a conference when I stay in one - not just on vacation when I might not care. But I always care. I'm paying a premium on literally everything in the hotel, just give me the thing that is so ubiquitous and free at most businesses/public spaces in the world.
Ha! PSAV has now become Encore. I think PSAV bought out Encore but took their name. We used them in CLT for this past meeting and will use them again in Orlando for our next big meeting. They do the "sales" for the hotel, but I don't think they set the price necessarily. We have learned to negotiate the "free internet" in our contract before committing. Not much we can do about the AV setups, etc.
Bingo. Yeah, you learn from your mistakes or at least I did. I tried to use my own laptop projector one time and quickly learned it was better to use their high powered one. They bailed me out at the last minute. It is ridiculous to sometimes have to pay $500 for their projectors. Didn't know about Encore/PSAV acquisition.
Once our meetings became increasingly bigger over the past ten years, we've had to move from bringing our own gear to just letting them do it. Less hassle and if anything goes wrong it's typically on them to fix it....and quickly! To give you an idea about costs, we dropped $110,000 on AV for mainly 2 days worth of AV gear and support. Granted we had 23 separate meetings, and were also using Logitech Meetups and Owls for virtual components, but the bulk of the cost was screens and projectors, mics, soundboards for back of the house, etc.
I had a hotel clerk tell me once that they didn't charge because it was a selling point to get folks into their rooms. This was a regular hotel - like $80-$120 a night hotel. Typical place for a family.
The higher end hotel client base is choosing a hotel because it has a restaurant/bar/lounge and they don't need to offer free internet for those folks- so they actually charge for it.
I do have coworkers- mainly manager types that won't stay at a hotel unless it has a bar and a sit down restaurant so they don't have to leave the hotel when they check in for dinner. They'll gladly pay a small charge for internet.
I guess it made sense - sort of.
The other posters that mentioned signing up for the hotel's rewards program will usually mean you get the internet free.
Hotels have taken such a beating during the pandemic, they are looking for any way to pad a hotel bill.
I once had an Embassy Suites charge me like $30 for use of their extension cord.
Our company had booked a small training session for their hotel and we had brought out own projector. But after setting up we realized we needed one additional cord. I tried to talk them into letting me use it but they declined. So I paid instead of running out and buying one- which I really didn't have time to do.
They worker did retrieve it and taped it down to the floor so it wasn't a tripping hazard and then put a runner over it making it look nice. So I guess it was worth it in the end.
They also charged like $500 for a few dozen sodas, coffee and some Danish for a mid-morning break for about 20 people. Yes, their workers set it up and clean it up - but that's still pretty high.
But I also know this part of the hotel business was absolutely creamed during the pandemic.
We're in Hilton Honors and we usually stay in either a Hampton Inn & Suites or another of their hotels. The WiFi is complimentary for Honors members and it will actually save you some on your stays over time.
My wife and MIL visited NYC not long after 9/11 and the people in NYC were extremely appreciative that tourists were visiting the city. Just FYI. A different mayor though.
We had a good experience there a couple years ago. In the upper West Manhattan area is so touristy people are generally polite. But man, is it expensive!
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
USCBatgirl21
Well-Known Member
My 50th Bday trip in 2 years will be a couple days in NYC (hit up Tiffany for a ring I want, and catch Phantom on Broadway -bucket list items) and then I'm heading up to Cooperstown to mark that off the bucket list.
Not having a refrigerator in a "nice", pretty expensive hotel is corporate greed.Corporate or consumer greed? You want cheap, you got it, the price listing on the internet is low but you don’t want to pay more?
Consumer, Not Corporate, "Greed" Is Ultimately Behind Layoffs
www.mackinac.org
And that is what this thread and all the many examples are about: corporations charging too much for the basics, which are often of lower quality despite the high cost.
I have been all over America and the world and even the cheapest hostels usually have refrigerators and reasonable Wi-Fi.
But consumer greed is obviously a problem too, not denying that.
Edit: thank you for posting an unrelated 20 year old opinion piece haha. Have a good weekend.
Freedom of our system is you can chose which determines the price. Isn’t it great how you can chose to reject the article due to its age while it was still pertinent to the situation. Peace.
What I am saying is that everywhere else i have ever stayed (paying from 12 Euro/night up to expensive places and everything in between) had wifi and an available refrigerator, like where the front desk would at least help you store the food. For a $125+ hotel to charge $28 for a refrigerator or $15 for wifi is greed, plain and simple. It's basically price gouging the captive guests once they have committed to staying the night. You don't have to tell me i'm right, but I truly hope you can see this.
It's not really price gouging. It's just their way of telling you they don't want to provide those things. If it was $1 then everyone would ask for one. So they price it high enough that people don't.
Like when a hotel charges $30 for a burger or $16 for a parfait. They do that to keep people out.
Businesses often relay their intentions through price.
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