f4free

I stayed at the Athens Mariott last weekend, and have been to a couple of US loacations with broadband internet.

However, I have never been able to use it out of three times I tried. In Athens I was asked to punch in a code nobody in the hotel had, and no purchase page popped up. Nobody could help with anything. In the US one time the cable was broken, and another time the DHCP didn't give me an IP address, even though my computer works fine with every DHCP I've seen. Nobody was ever able to help. Frustrating since I paid more to go to that hotel because of the service.

What are you're experiences?

DK_1KGal

I'm VERY happy with the broadband -- have used it at the RI in El Segundo, Marriott in Anaheim, Marriott Munich, JW in Wash, DC, Fairview Park, Marriott Financial in NYC, etc etc.

Never had a single problem connecting -- but my laptops are set up with DHCP, etc. and I just "ride the wire" even at work.

sbrower

Very happy. I am technical enough I have been able to solve the problems. (One time the high speed modem wasn't plugged into the wall.)

Paloa

Early experiences were poor. Cables were unavailable etc.

Recently it has worked extremely well. Engineering able to provide cables etc.

UALOneKPlus

You should call the help desk.

I have had very few problems. One time someone had unplugged the wire to the DSL modem in the room.

You also make sure the proxy for your Internet Explorer is turned OFF.

bonzaiflyer

Very happy. Only once have I had to call the help desk. They could "see" the hotel from STSN, but nothing within the hotel.

The hotel had nobody working that could troubleshoot the wiring closet. Being a network consultant, I volunteered, found it,
(turns out someone had unplugged the 110v power cord on the switch in the closet), plugged it back in and all was fine.

STSN comped my usage for the stay (1 week) but the Courtyard didn't do diddly.

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Not sure where I'm going, but I'm getting there fast.

zakami

Broadband has always worked for me at a Marriott. Once at the Minneapolis City Center Marriott it didn't work in one room, but when i complained they upgraded me to one of those bi-level suites and it worked just fine there.

However I have had it fail on me at 2 Sheratons.

mymiles2go

I'm VERY Happy with broadband. The large majority of my hotel choices are based on the availability of broadband connections in the room. I hope whomever finally implemented this in Marriott got promotion after promotion, who knows how much money they've made Marriott. I assume most IT folks, like myself always go straight to where broadband is, well, at least everyone I've met at my company.

Rudi

I am a happy broadband connected Macintosh user at home (Power Mac G3) and at Wengen (i-book).

And no problem to get broad-connected with my Mac i-book at Marriott (so far Marriott SFO airport, Marriott Sacramento, Renaissance Honolulu) and Hyatt (Canberra, Australia).

UALOneKPlus

Exactly. This is why I abandoned Starwood. The Starwood CAIS broadband was only good for surfing, not for logging onto my corporate VPN to do serious work. I was pretty pissed off.

I switched to Marriott, and their broadband in general works with my VPN all the time.

When you think about it, broadband is a real cost and time saver. Prior to broadband, I'd pay tons of $$$ in phone bills for dialing up via modem. I have broadband at home and cannot handle modems anymore.

RichG

We should distinguish between brands of broadband service and other factors.

For example, I have twice stayed at Marriotts which inaccurately listed broadband access on the web page. No response was ever received to my written complaints. One of the properties now lists broadband access in meeting rooms as being available (that is accurate), so be careful about reading the listing (not that it would have helped me... the listing was not correct at the time).

I have had uniformly successful results using STSN as implemented at many Courtyards and full-service Marriotts. Less successful has been Wayport, where I have a problem about a third of the time.

In Las Vegas, many hotels have recently been wired by Cox Cable. At the Las Vegas Hilton, I had to call the 800 # given every day to get some equipment in the hotel reset before I could connect. A month or two later, the same service worked fine at Paris. However, as opposed to Wayport & STSN, the installation standards used by Cox are poor. Be prepared to find a cable tail, which may or may not be long enough to get to the desk, originating near the TV set (for reasons which should be obvious). I now carry a 25-foot Ethernet cable extension. Credit is due to Cox Cable for billing on a 24-hour basis, as opposed to the more common noon-to-noon.

There are a number of other "off-brand" services out there. My experience is that your chances of a successful connection without that call to customer service are about 50-50.

JBDouglass

Very happy. I have been able to connect to work through VPN every time. I'm not happy that some Marriott properties don't have broadband yet.

f4free

Thanks a lot. I guess I just had bad luck, this encourages me.

LH738

BTW, hotels with High-speed internet access can be found:
http://www.marriott.com/microsites/business/hsia.asp