The problem is that many Marriotts seemingly had not upgraded their bandwidth since first installed in the 1990s, and now that they are (or recently) upgrading their bandwidth it is a delayed response to what was needed 3, 4, 5 years ago. What they should be doing is upgrading to the necessary bandwidth based on projections of what will be needed 3, 4, 5 years in the future. Sadly, they are either upgrading for the past, or upgrading to the absolute minimum necessary for the present.

I am no expect in the cost of bandwidth infrastructure for hotels, but I bet that someone who is reading this thread is. So, my question is, once a hotel has decided that upgrading bandwidth is necessary, is there a huge difference in cost to upgrade from say 3 to 10, rather than from say 3 to 6? (Please forgive me if I am not using the correct terminology.)

Also, wouldn't it be cheaper over the long term to upgrade bandwidth, once, today, for the present plus future projections, rather than upgrading twice, now for today, and again in a few years when bandwidth needs are again higher than now?

That is very short sighted! In one of my recent hotel stays, I could not even look at 2-3 minute news videos and business video podcasts! IMHO, the only logical solution is to have necessary plus some extra (for occasional huge peaks and for future growth) bandwidth. However, playing devil's advocate, I do realize that by not increasing bandwidth "quite enough," hotels are HOPING that guests will not be able to watch movies on their computers, and instead will pay the hotel for movies to be viewed on the in room television, on demand.

Speaking for myself, I have only watched movies on demand, on the in room television, three times over the last two decades, once when I was sick as a dog with a cold, once when there were torrential downpours for days, and once when I was staying with a friend, and we realized it was cheaper to do on demand than it was to go out to a movie and buy TWO tickets. IMO, for only one person, the price of on demand is very expensive.

Big +1 about being overseas. In Germany, France, and throughout Asia, there is almost never any significant English language programming. In The Netherlands there usually is a decent selection (most people there speak three or four languages), and in Spain also, because Spain basically is the "UK's Florida."

For hotels not to invest in proper bandwidth, to me, is like hotels not investing in upgrading their bathrooms! To upgrade bandwidth, and not bathrooms would be stupid, and IMO, upgrading bathrooms, and not bandwidth, is equally stupid.

As an interesting aside to this, Bill Marriott is known for visiting many Marriott branded hotels the world over for personal inspections. Bill M. does not travel with a laptop, as he is self admittedly computer illiterate. So, he would be outraged to visit a Marriott branded hotel with out of date bathrooms, but he would never know if that same hotel had out of date Internet bandwidth, because he never samples it.

It is not only a matter of people using bandwidth are smarter than who is providing bandwidth, but it is also a matter of technology advancing at such a terrific rate that providers are not able, or not willing, to keep up. This is why providers should leapfrog present needs, and invest for projected future needs, as far in advance as they possibly can. Again, just MHO.

I agree, 1000%!!! I do not generally stream video, except for news stories and business video, both of which are usually 10 minutes or less, and sometimes those are not even hi-def.

Yes, I have never seen a club or concierge lounge at a FS hotel not have bottled water available for people with access to those lounges to take back to their rooms. Of course as soon as I say this, someone will tell us about one or two hotels they have visited which did not, and of course, I have not stayed in every FS international hotel in the Marriott chain, and I can't make a fully authoritative blanket statement on this, however, my educated guess on this is that 99% of FS hotels in the Marriott chain, throughout the world, will provide bottled water in their lounges. "Resorts" excepted of course (since many or most do not have Concierge Lounges).