Delayed Again

Earlier this year I attended a conference at which one of the sponsors paid so the rest of us could have free WiFi in conference’s public areas.  This was great as when you’re manning a booth, it’s nice to be able to check e-mail, surf the net, look things up, etc.  The conference got into the swing of it too as they had a conference blog and twitter thread.  This really changed the conference experience for the better.  Even the complaints were better focused and more inclined toward making things better via technology.

When I returned to my room, however, if I needed to get on the Internet I had to plug in and pay $9.95 a day.  This is not uncommon in full service hotels and I find myself growing more and more frustrated.  Many discount/business-focused hotels like Hampton Inn or Courtyard by Marriott have begun offering free wireless Internet to guests.  Their full service parent locations, however, are still gouging business travellers for daily Internet fees.

It’s time that full service hotels join the present and offer their customers free wireless Internet.  Specifically:

1. Offer free wireless in all public and private areas of the hotel.  It should be free in my room, in the lobby, in the restaurant, by the pool, in the bar, etc.  Not one area of the hotel should be lacking for coverage.
2. Extend this free wireless to conference attendees.  It’s time for hotels to stop taking advantage of captive audiences and charging astronomical fees.
3. Ensure that there is adequate bandwidth available so that the Internet does not slow to a crawl during peak times.
4. Enable me to access my company’s VPN without paying an additional fee.
5. Offer free printing in the business center for boarding passes and small jobs.

To leave you, I’ll add one more pet peeve.  If you’re on vacation, don’t let your kids go down to the business center to play games or check their myspace page.  It’s annoying to those of us who are trying to get ready for a meeting or print boarding passes.