Interesting post to me because of experience with 'free area transportation' that exists in some other places in the world. Forget a simple shuttle available to run around town.

In many tourist areas of Switzerland, hotels offer a 'Guest Pass'. These passes give you reductions on many area attractions as well as 'free' travel on local public transportation. The best of those available in Switzerland that I have seen is the Davos-Klosters Guest Card. It gives you free travel on local area buses, trains and cable cars as well as lots of discounts on local attractions. See a full list of what is included here: https://www.davos.ch/fileadmin/user_...erziell_en.pdf

At the bottom of the page it gives the bus and train info.

For people like my wife and I who are avid hikers, it can represent savings of several hundred dollars in a week long stay. On a recent trip of 10 nights stay, I estimate it saved us at least $400-500 in transportation costs. A single cable car ride up a mountain can cost 25 CHF per person. That is $26.40 USD at today's exchange rate. As hikers we may take a bus down the valley to a start point; a cable car up the mountain to the hike start point; hike across to another cable car station; cable car down into the valley; bus back to our starting point. Or we might take the bus to the train station; the train to a different cable car; cable car up, hike, cable car down and bus back to our hotel. It all adds up to a considerable cost over time.

There are many places in the world that offer lots of different kinds of things the traveller can take advantage of. Your example of a local area shuttle service is just one small example davie355. I don't mean to hi-jack your thread, I'm just saying, it is a small example of what can be found. Most cities as another example have various kinds of passes that are free or can be bought and give discounts or free access to attractions.