I'm irritated with the rise at STSN prices. The courtyard I'm staying at now charges $10.99 per day for access.

I fail to see how this is reasonable. I pay $45 per month for cable modem access at home. How can a hotel justify $10.99 per day for the same level of access?

At some point I'm going to have to stop using hotel broadband on the road if this practice keeps up, especially as other options such as cheaper wireless broadband become available.

:thumbsdown: Boo to STSN / Marriott for this consumer rip-off!!!

In my opinion, Marriott is still somewhat cheaper than competitors. Most Marriotts charge $9.99. Most Sheratons/Westins I have been to charge about $12.99-$14.99. I only get it if its $9.99 or less. Once I even saw it for $6.99 at the Sheraton Tempe. On a longer stay, I usually get the weekly package which STSN does offer but Wayport does not. The most expensive I have run into is 15.99 pounds at the London Heathrow Marriott.

I stayed at a Fairfield Inn recently that provided the ethernet Internet connection for free.

If they feel that they must charge, I like the idea of an Internet/long distance package at a fixed price - usually something like $15.

I agree, they're in line or cheaper than most chains. And, the deployment rate at Marriott seems much higher than other chains.

I have some issues with Marriott, but this is not one of them.

Which Fairfield Inn provided broadband service for free? Thanks.

Here's a blurb from "socrates" that may give some insight into Marriott's plan for HS Internet access:

Here at the CY DOwntown Toronto. The charge is USD$9.95 + tax for unlimited connectivity from the hotel's check-in time until check-out time daily.

I am surprised that the CY Toronto bills in US$. Or is 9.95 equivalent of X (around $14.5) CAD$?

CAD$15.95

The crazy thing is getting the exact same service in the conference rooms for our company's meetings and having to pay $750.00 for it...

Stayed at the Marriott Wardman, and I believe I was charged $9.95 for the service, but also received unlimited local/long distance calls. Thought that was reasonable.

High speed internet access should be included in the nightly room charge. Period.

Wireless access should be rolled out the same way.

HSII and wireless are some of the few true guest "delighters" out there right now. To spoil the delight with a $9.95 or higher charge is silly.

To those who say "But not everyone uses HSII," well, not everyone uses all the towels in a room either. Or both beds if you have to stay in a double-double. Or the maximum capicity of the AC or heater. Or all the little bottles of soap, shampoo, and flowery smelly stuff. Somehow, though, the hotel manages to roll ALL OF THIS into the room rate. To not do so for phone and internet speaks volumes about a hotel's management needing to see new paradigms.

To confound the whole issue further, some Marriott and Marriott brand hotels offer HSII free, thereby proving that it CAN be done. No consistency at all, and shame on Marriott for allowing it to get this way.

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Brian/\/\

I read a report somewhere (credible source) that it is cheaper for hotels to roll-out wireless than to setup a wire high-speed network. This also facilitates in lower usage of phone lines (no modems) and thus reducing their telephone bills. It supposedly costs approximately $30,000 to outfit an average size hotel with wireless (excluding monthly charges for T1) and just the savings in one year from fewer telephone lines is greater than $30,000.

Since this thread was already cross-posted and the topic and discussion was so insipid, I decided to cross post my response.

Are you guys ever willing to pay for anything??!!
Look at the cap ex required for this:

1) Either hard wire cat 5 to every room or utilize point to point DSL to run over the voice wiring (WIFI is not a practical solution for guest room access)
2) A proper router with manageability
3) Manageable switches
4) A validation server with software to manage access and run DHCP services
5) 2 firewalls to create a DMZ isolating the guest LAN from the hotel LAN and outside access
6) A help desk to support users who can not find their way out of a wet paper bag
7) Reserves for losses of theft/abuse of equipment
8) One or more T1 lines to provide unmeatered bandwidth that is linear scalable and comes with SLA�s
9) Redundancy of equipment at key points of failure
10) Training of hotel staff to support the system
11) Hardware maintenance and refresh on the equipment

At $10, it is a gift, pure and simple. Does your company give anyway things for fun without a profit motive??

While I agree that we probably should have to pay something for broadband access.....

The Rennaisance in Pittsburgh has free broadband. There's no STSN box, just a port in the wall to plug in to.