I am never amused to pay for internet. I consider it a necessary part of all travel. Now, if the Marriott has a nice business center, I don't mind using that instead of having complimentary access in my room. What does irritate me is paying to use the internet at the businesss center as well, especially at a full service Marriott in New York.

$63 for Parking and Connection at SF Marriott
 

I usally stay at the RIs or SSs so I don't often have to pay and can expense it for business travel.

It was an interesting experience paying $12.95 for HS-net and $50!! for parking at the SF Marriott last week tho.

At least they're upfront about it on the website.

Costa Mesa is SLOOOW
 

Not only does the Costa Mesa Marriott Suites charge $9.95 per day for HSIA, the actually "high speed" connection seems to run around 64K baud, or less. It's sad when even primarily text-based websites are so slow. Downloading large files for work with images or any video clips is out of the question.

You guys are lucky over there in the states, I recently paid £15 per day for HSIA in the Reniassance Hotel Heathrow which is about $28 dollars with the current exchange rate!

I’ve always noticed that HS Internet in Europe is waaaaay over-priced.

But, then again, what isn’t expensive in Europe?? :p

Seriously, what’s the rationale for the exorbitant HS charges in Europe other than the obvious??

I have no idea why it is so expensive over here, and to be honest it is not that fast a connection. :confused:

Maybe someone from Marriott views this board and can take a hint

I had the same conversation!!
 

Hey MichaelCoyote:

DId the FS Marriott in PDX happen to have a river in front of it? :-) If so, then I just had the same conversation with the same GM this past Friday, and he referenced his conversation with you! I too held up my cell phone, and he seemed to think that changes may be forced in the future as well. I told him that I'd hate to HAVE to stay at Courtyards just to avoid the $10 daily internet fee. He seems like a great guy...we just need him to take the message to Marriott Corporate to get rid of those bad fees! My company is starting to ask more questions about expensing these fees as more and more properties cease charging for internet. May get tougher to justify (from a company reimbursement point of view) going forward.

My company allows me to expense my cell phone, so I have one of those cellular Internet cards. Mine is from Sprint, and my husband has one from Verizon.

The card was free during a Sprint promo earlier this year. It does cost $60/month for unlimited Internet, but it's well worth it if you stay in FS properties that charge for Internet a lot. Plus, you don't have to pay for wifi in airports, Starbucks, etc.

I got mine primarily for when I work at client sites where they either don't give me Internet or don't give me a connection that permits VPN back to my corporate network. But the fact that I no longer have to worry about HSIA charges at hotels is a nice bonus. I even use it at home when my cable modem connection is on the fritz... or at hotels whose free HSIA doesn't work real well ;)

Yep, it's the one on Naito partway. My client had a really good rate there so $10 didnt burn as much as some recent stays, but still..

It's good that I made an impression on the guy. Hopefully he's taken that info back to the home office.

He is a super nice guy (like just about all the Marriott managers i've met). I could tell that he took my comment to heart, but I'm not sure how much pull managers get on issues like this.

I'm somewhat fortunate in that I have some latitude in where I stay most of the time, but I realize that many don't. It would be sad to hear that FS Marriotts lose out over CYs over something as stupid as free HS Internet.

Regards,

_m

Remember many (or most) of the hotels are owned and operated by different owners, so I don't know where corporate Marriott has the leverage to change this. That's one of the reasons you see different providers at different properties and some that include phone calls.

The lease is up on my laptop and I'm getting a new wide-screen :D that also includes built in EDVO (verizon's wireless internet technology). So no card needed and Verizon is my cell carrier. Just remember that most of the TOS for the cell providers internet service has limits on what you can do (i.e. streaming music or video could get you cancelled).

Of course I am thinking about the plus of being stuck on the runway during weather delays and pulling up the radar while I rebook flights on line, so Marriott may wind up helping me in the end.