« In Defense of WiMAX |
Main
| Canary Wireless: First Impressions »
February 2, 2005
Free Hotel Wi-Fi Gains Momentum
Posted by John Yunker
Another hotel chain has announced that it would offer free Wi-Fi. Microtel Inn & Suites said it will offer free Wi-Fi in all hotel rooms, along with free domestic local/long distance across all 275 locations. Despite what the hotel's press release says, this is not a "first" in the hotel industry. Far from it, this is a global industry trend that continues to gain momentum.
Hotel GMs know that people are making hotel choices based on Internet access in general and Wi-Fi in particular. And GMs are learning that it is easier to bundle "free" access into the room rate than try to nickel and dime the guests. I can attest to that; I recently stayed at two business hotels in Japan, both of which offered free in-room Internet access and free Wi-Fi in the lobbies.
The higher-end hotel chains (Four Seasons, Fairmont, Ritz) continue to hold their ground on paid Internet access, but I don't believe even this will last.
Comments (0)
+ TrackBacks (0) | Category: Wi-Fi
- RELATED ENTRIES
- › testing
- › Palm Treo Litigation Update
- › Class Action Suit Against Palm: Where Do I Sign Up?
- › "Are you alright?" Cell calls spike in wake of London terrorist bombings
- › 26.4 million Live 8 Text Messages? So What?
- › It, Robot: "Shuushi, touzoku!!
- › Remote medic alert was science fiction.. I said *was*
- › I'll take a pass on NFL highlights to my cell
Russell Shaw is a specialist in mobile computing, telephony, networking and covers these fields regularly for numerous print and online publications. Russ writes the popular IP Telephony blog on ZDNet and contributes regularly to The Industry Standard blog as well. Author of seven books, Russ' latest book is Wireless Networking Made Easy.
John Yunker is president of 
