Paying for wifi in Hotels

[The Camel]

Why does it costs £10ish to use wifi in a hotel room you've paid £150 for when it's free if you buy a portion of chips in McDonalds?

Wifi is essentailly free for the hotel to provide.

Complete ripoff.

[david3103]

Why does it costs £10ish to use wifi in a hotel room you've paid £150 for when it's free if you buy a portion of chips in McDonalds?

Wifi is essentailly free for the hotel to provide.

Complete ripoff.

This.
I always answer the 'anything we could do better/to improve our service' question by pointing this out.

[tikay]

It is a standard "added value" extra for the Hotel.

A Days Inn, typically, (depends who holds the Management Contract) will charge between £50 & £70 for the room, then £10 for wifi, £8 for Breakfast, etc. It makes a HUGE difference to their margins, just as Budget Airlines charging for baggage rely on people paying these "extras".

The wifi alone adds as much as 20% to the hotel's margin for the room, & it drops straight through to the bottom line, as provision of the service is, essentially, free, or near as damn.

We all want wifi in hotels, & the Hotels know it. Seems normal, & wholly fair, business practice to me. They are fulfilling a demand in exchange for money.

The alternative business model, which many of the better, & (more expensive) hotels use it to give free wifi.

The major coffee chains (Starbys, Costa), Motorway Service Stations, &, it seems, MacDonalds, approach the opportunity differently, & give free wifi. That does act as a magnet to many, me included.

Airports are mixed, most have hotspots where you have to pay, some have free wifi, others have "Exec Lounges" where it is free, but entrance to the Exec Lounge costs, say, £25, the only benefit being free coffee, free wifi, & a seat where you can see the aeroplanes. Children ARE allowed in these lounges, sigh.

[DaveShoelace]

Why does it costs £10ish to use wifi in a hotel room you've paid £150 for when it's free if you buy a portion of chips in McDonalds?

Wifi is essentailly free for the hotel to provide.

Complete ripoff.s

Freakonomics did a podcast about this recently. The simple answer is someone who paid £150 is more likely to pay for wifi also, than someone in a much cheaper hotel, who may expect it for free. Also a lot of people in hotels are on business and can claim it back.

I hate it, instantly destroys any customer service rapport I might otherwise develop with the hotel.

[tikay]

Why does it costs £10ish to use wifi in a hotel room you've paid £150 for when it's free if you buy a portion of chips in McDonalds?

Wifi is essentailly free for the hotel to provide.

Complete ripoff.s

Freakonomics did a podcast about this recently. The simple answer is someone who paid £150 is more likely to pay for wifi also, than someone in a much cheaper hotel, who may expect it for free. Also a lot of people in hotels are on business and can claim it back.

I hate it, instantly destroys any customer service rapport I might otherwise develop with the hotel.

In fact, it works back to front, Barry, or mostly so.

You have to pay a tenner for wifi in almost every Travelodge, Days Inn, Premier Inn, etc, all the budgets charge for it. Once you get to £150 per night, then many provide it for free.

I stayed in a hotel suite recently which cost me £750 per night - PLUS wifi! In that instance, to be fair, they were lifting my leg, & I refused to pay for it.

[ACE2M]

I'm with you. It winds me up so much that i refuse even though i really want it.

Is it an English thing? went on a euro tour last summer and everywhere we went it was free, they were mid range type hotels £80pn ish.

[DaveShoelace]

Nope, I have seen wifi routinely charged for in the vast majority of £150+ hotels I have stayed in. The cheaper hotels that are in chains like travelinn tend to charge, but the cheapest hotels and in particular hostels, are often free.

[tikay]

I'm with you. It winds me up so much that i refuse even though i really want it.

Is it an English thing? went on a euro tour last summer and everywhere we went it was free, they were mid range type hotels £80pn ish.

As long as punters will pay for it, they will charge for it. Standard enough business logic, really, & even though we don't liike it, they are doing nothing wrong, it is not "sharp" or wrong in any way. Punters have the choice.

[tikay]

Nope, I have seen wifi routinely charged for in the vast majority of £150+ hotels I have stayed in. The cheaper hotels that are in chains like travelinn tend to charge, but the cheapest hotels and in particular hostels, are often free.

I would not know, Barry, I'm two coat tikay, on tellly & all sorts.

[DaveShoelace]

I actually hate it much more when they charge an arm and a leg for cans of coke or bottles of water. I interviewed Barry Greenstein at the metropole last year and even he looked disguted when they charged him £3 for a can of coke.

[DaveShoelace]

Nope, I have seen wifi routinely charged for in the vast majority of £150+ hotels I have stayed in. The cheaper hotels that are in chains like travelinn tend to charge, but the cheapest hotels and in particular hostels, are often free.

I would not know, Barry, I'm two coat tikay, on tellly & all sorts.

Lol, that had reminded me of something funny.

I have met three seperate people, all of whom know nothing of poker, who have had the devilish walk up to them and introduce himself by saying 'hi I'm devilfish, from the telly'

Have you ever done that? Replacing devilfish with Tikay obv

[mulhuzz]

what barry says is true, and on a wider basis, this is simply allowing customers to price discriminate against themselves --> just like the large cup of coffee in starbucks costing about 3p more than the small cup -- all that money is pure margin (more or less..)

in the budget hotels, there is far lessss room to price discriminate because, well, people are on a budget.

btw - on a wider point, I'd recommend people read the freakonomics website/listen to their podcasts. Fascinating stuff.

[Longy]

My experience is similar to Barry's, the more expensive the hotel the more likely they are to charge. This sample is admittedly mainly in the North America.

[david3103]

Days Inn on Welcome Break MSAs provide FREE wifi

and rooms from as little as £29

[ACE2M]

in california last year it was also free everywhere, a mix of cheapo motels and some luxury hotels.