farci

When I travel I choose a hotel which provides Wi-Fi in the room rate. What I object to is such poor quality Wi-Fi that I am forced to pay extra for a 'premium' service. Usually that adds around €10-15 per night.

I have no objection to paying for Wi-Fi. It's a utility like water and electricity which I need to make me more productive. However I do object to hotels' pretence that their 'free' service is fit for purpose. The problem seems to be getting worse, at least in my experience in Europe.

What I detest, as happened this week at a hotel near FRA, is having then paid the €10 gouge for 'premium' Wi-Fi service, it still didn't work well. So I am trapped in an industrial area hotel room with no alternative except using my much slower 3G link!

I asked for and got a refund in the morning but that was one wasted evening. Has anyone else experienced this?

Adam1222

has anyone been at a hotel with paid wifi that had connectivity problems? uh, yes.

mfkne

Did they offer WiFi or did they offer Internet access?

cdn1

With so many abusing the 'free' priviledge and people start downloading and streaming shows, it becomes a problem very quickly since everyone wants full speed.

Doesn't the employer pay or provide for the internet access? Bill them if its really necessary.
Ofcourse if it's a personal trip, then people should perhaps enjoy the time-off rather than be plugged in all the time ? I guess its really hard to stay away from internet these days

milepig

Let's see.

I recently landed at FRA after a long trip and checked into my hotel.

Went online to see if my local friends had finally decided where we'd meet for dinner - they had.
Checked the train schedules/stop needed and found the schedule to be inconvenient.
Went into my rental car booking and changed the pick up date from the next morning to that afternoon.
Checked which of the airport parking options would be best for an overnight.
Went to google maps to check the best route to the hotel and how long the drive would be.
Wrote the people I was meeting the next day to let them know I'd arrived and was looking forward to lunch.
Did a hotel search for the next few nights and found cheaper rates at better locations so cancelled by "backup" bookings and rebooked.
Sent a couple messages to friends/family back home.
Browsed the online edition of the NYTimes.
Checked the train schedules into Frankfurt and found I had plenty of time for a quick trip to walk around town before I had to pick up my car back at the airport. Looked at the map to decide which direction I'd walk in.

farci

@cdn1 - it's not about paying for WiFi and it's not a 'free privilege'. It's in the room rate.

My complaint is about the inability of the hotelier to provide a contracted service. After all, if the bathroom water flowed only occasionally or the pressure was so low it couldn't be used most guests would regard that as unacceptable

pinniped

+1.

I don't see how normal use of electricity, Wifi, water, etc. is "abuse". I expect all of those things to work - and work well - when I check in to a modern hotel in a developed part of the world. We're way beyond the era where crappy Wifi is okay because it's, y'know, a new technology...

I don't mind the tiered system as long as the tier included in my rate works. My uses are similar to milepig's examples above and are well within the description of a typical base-tier user. It's not like he's calling the front desk complaining that downloading all five seasons of The Wire was a bit sluggish.

farci

- very droll!

Front desk staff are chosen for their hospitality skills which don't normally include diagnosing Wi-Fi network problems. If I call the supplier's helpline usually shown on the key card they can't do anything unless there is an exterior network fault.

Why? The cheapskate hotel owners get away with it since it's not a major revenue stream and the guest only learns of the problem at about 7pm when it's too late to do anything

greggarious

I've found the wifi better at Best Western / Holiday Inn Express type places than "fancy" hotels. Nowadays if I have important need for internet, I'm apt to just stay in an AirBnB.