Boomer

Just wanted to remind the folks from Hilton that are lurking that I'll be in St Louis for 7 nights next week.

I won't be at the Hilton due to their phone charges. At 109 bucks a night for the room
thats 7630 dimes.

Mote to Hilton: I'm sure Starwood thanks you.

PremEx

Hey Boomer, be carefull. I just spent 3 nights at the Sheraton Suites Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, and they too were charging for local calls in excess of 20 minutes.

Scott the flier

Just spent 2 nights at the Holiday Inn in Newton, MA. They also charged for the calls.

Cheers Scott

onefreeman

Spent our anniversary night at the Renaissance Cottonwoods in Scottsdale, AZ. Surcharge for ANY call over 20 minutes prominently displayed on the phone in the living room.

Horrible trend. If I could get good connects from a cellular modem AND break my FT habit, I'd be OK...

pgupta011

This week I spent 1 night at Omaha Sheraton, where they have 10c/minute after 20 minutes on 800 or local calls (and 85c for initial local call connection). Meanwhile at nearby Holiday Inn in Council Bluffs, where I am spending 4 nights, there is no charge for 800 calls and free unlimited local calls.

Boomer

Well I'm at the Sheraton in Clayton MO this week, not the Hilton.

Phone charegs are $1 per day for unlimited local calls, no meters, no time clocks, no dimes.

shadow

That's a new one, Boomer...but I like it better than the other option.

Diamond Dog

Does anyone else find the 1 hour time limits (then you pay a ridiculous rate after that) on local calls inconvenient and not condusive to business travelers (who have to log in and do work most of the time)

Now I am finding a ton of hotels that have 30 minute limits!

Shouldn't hotels try and acomadate business travelers (who make of the majority of their business) rather than hinder them?

jabez

It's all about $$$

NJDavid

When older hotels put in their phone systems and switch they used a telephone industry algorithm for ordering the right number of outgoing trunks.

If they have 2000 phone instruments, they will not be making 2000 outgoing calls at once. Some will be idle, some will be making internal calls, and only a few will be making outgoing calls at the same time and for specific calculated durations at specific peak times. There are/were presice formulas to calculate those to a frightening degree of accuracy. In the last few years, business travelers with modems have blown the calculations to smitherines. Properties have to choose to either 1) pay for increased outgoing capacity or 20 find an artifical way to limit usage - thus the charges for calls that they perceive to be modem use (over 30 minutes).

We're in a technology gap, especially in a down market. In 5 or so years (if the economy finally improves) most major properties should have high speed internet access, most major companies should have VPNs (that allow secure access through firewalls from any internet connection) and the problem will go away. Maybe.

[This message has been edited by NJDavid (edited 09-01-2001).]

cordelli

As NJ David said, most businesses don't have one line per telephone, number, whatever. Even if everybody in the office has direct inward dialing, they most usually don't have one line per number they are coming from a pool of usually one line per every four numbers. Most businesses have to pay by the minute, even for local calls in some areas too.

That was fine a few years ago, because nobody would be on the telephone for hours at a time. Now people check into a hotel room, connect to the internet, and leave the machine on all night till the next morning so they can hear it go "bing" if they have e-mail. It's a huge burden on the hotel to have to put up with this, as the system will very easily become overloaded. I've heard of people who download music all night when they travel, because at home they don't want to tie up their telephone lines.

If you are going to tie up a line for hours at a time you should have to pay for it. I know it sucks, but the hotel shouldn't have to cover the cost and raise rates for everybody to cover a few people who have to be connected for hours at a time, causing other guests to get busy signals or not have lines available.

As more and more hotels put in high speed access (assuming the DSL companies are still around) this will become a moot point, but until then if you are costing them money tyipg up a line you should pay for part of it.

sawsmanfc

Just back from a stay at Marriott Suites in Newport Beach, CA. They charge for LOCAL calls
over 12 miles, based on time and distance. So, even though you are making a local call
(verified by the phone company operator twice), you are still subject to time and distance $$.
Noone at the hotel could explain what the costs
are, nor how to find out what's in or out of the 12 mile zone. Tough on lap top users not on copmany expenses.
El-Ripo.

cabolew

Not only are these charges and time limits common on local calls, but also on "toll free" calls (800, 877 etc). However, I have found that a little sweet talk at the front desk and sometimes these charges are removed.

TucsonSam

I always ask if both local and toll-free numbers are free or have a time limit. If local calls are not toll free - I use a 4.16 cent/minute card from Sam's Club or COSTCO or a payphone if the calls will be over ten minutes. I also use 2.9 cents/minute callinf using an 800# from onesuite.com. Keep in mind that there are always surcharges from payphones using an 800# or prepaid card that are usually from 25 cents (Sam's Club/COSTCO) or 55 cents (onesuite.com). I agree that the hotels don't have one line for every telephone and that the system was designed so that only a set percentage of callers can be on the phone at any one time (20% for example) so a hotel with 400 rooms may have only 80 lines. This made a lot of sense when the average length of a call from a hotel room was only a few minites. This was almost never a problem until their guests decided to tie up a phone line for hours on end with their computers. So now they are putting time limits (i.e. 15 or 30 minutes) on free calls and some are charging once that time limit is exceeded. A little frustrating, perhaps, but a way around it (for voice calls) is the phonecard or simply hanging up and calling back.
Tucsonsam

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TucsonSam

NJDavid

Actually, other than Modem use and room to room calls I NEVER use the hotel phone.

AT&T digital one rate nationwide, baby.....