There are few things that get me angrier than wireless internet access (or lack of it) in hotels. There are some hotels that have an admirable policy on WiFi, but by and large, accommodation providers behave disgracefully when it comes to getting online.
Suffice to say, this is likely to be the first of many rants on the subject. I shall come to cost, coverage and dodgy advertising at a later date, but the key reason that most hotels get it wrong is that they simply don’t care.
Wireless not working
I’ve lost count of the times that I’ve stayed at a hotel where the wireless isn’t working. One or two times, you can understand it – service providers do have downtime. But the consistency with which advertised WiFi does not materialise is an industry-wide joke.
The general rigmarole goes as follows:
- Try logging in to wireless network and discover it’s not working.
- Go to reception to find out what the problem is.
- Be met with a response along the lines of: “Oh, it often goes down,” or “yeah – it’s been like that for a couple of weeks”.
Other hotel facilities
There’s no attempt to fix the problem, just a shrug of the shoulders and an acceptance that one of the facilities that the hotel advertises is a bit rubbish.
Would this attitude be taken with any other hotel facilities? Would they allow a broken air conditioning unit to go unmended for weeks on end? Would they just not serve food if the stove in the restaurant kitchen broke? Would they not bother cleaning the en-suite bathrooms? Of course not.
Huge inconvenience of no internet
But the attitude to wireless is that it’s some mystical, temperamental creature that should be allowed to sleep at will. It doesn’t really matter, and no-one’s really going to be bothered about it.
Well, my friends, they are going to be bothered about it. For a business traveller – and many leisure travellers – it’s a huge inconvenience not to be able to access the internet. And more to the point, if you’re advertising that you’ve got it, you should make sure it works.
Setting up a wireless network
Put simply, the main reason why Johnny Hotelier’s wireless hasn’t been working for two weeks is that he never set it up properly in the first place. And he doesn’t care about his guests enough to sort the problem out.
Well I’m sorry, but if you advertise wireless access, then you’d better give wireless access. If I went to a zoo to see an advertised white tiger, only to be told it died three months ago, I’d be justifiably fuming. Similarly, I don’t expect to buy a DVD billed as having extra features to find that it’s really just the film.
If it doesn’t work – get it fixed
There’s no excuse for this, hotel managers. If your wireless system doesn’t work properly, then fix it. And if you don’t know how to fix it, get someone in who can set it up properly and teach your staff how to get it working again if things go wrong. Otherwise, don’t con people into staying at your establishment by saying you provide wireless internet access.
Tags: hotel, hotel wifi, Travel Industry
Hallelujah – let’s get this out in the open. Let me make it clear to The Hotel Industry: fast wireless internet throughout your property (or, at the very least, fast cabled internet in every room) is now a requirement. It’s as essential as a toilet that flushes or freshly laundered bedsheets. In fact, if I’m staying at your place while working on assignment, I’d rather have wireless internet than freshly laundered bedsheets. You can only manage a sweaty polyester pillowcase and a few black curly hairs in the blanket? No problem, as long as I’ve got fast internet so I can get on with my work.
In fact, make that FREE internet. Charge for wifi if you like (though I’ve found decent hotels around the world, in EVERY price bracket, who offer free wifi) – but, if you insist on offering only paid wifi, then please offer cabled internet for free. Stick another £2.50 on the room rate if you must, but offering free internet shouts about how you are a hotelier who is on the ball, who understands guest requirements, who cares about image and service, and who is prepared to push the boat out on behalf of clients. In other words, a hotelier who deserves praise and national attention.
Make internet access expensive, slow, poorly maintained or lacking altogether and you become the opposite: a hotelier who couldn’t give a monkeys.
This whole wifi in hotels issue really gets ne going. Why don’t they all offer free wifi at least in the lobby? I paid £60 for 3 months wifi access at UK Travelodge, in one Travelodge it didn’t work at all, in others I kept getting disconnected, in another I had to sit in my car in the car park to pick up a signal. The wifi is provided by a 3rd party with an 0870 phone number (chargeable as not included in my mobile inclusive minutes).
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I’m hearing you chaps, I’m hearing you. I was planning to move on to the price thing in another post, but you’ve pretty much said what I was going to say Matthew. It’s not the money – it’s the attitude.
Completely agree with this post. Go David!
There have been so many occassions I’ve visited a hotel, only to find their in-room Wi-Fi either incredibly flaky, requiring a LAN connection, needing a room change to somewhere “closer to the lobby,” – or, worse, being described by the receptionist as “Whiffy.”
I’ve switched to wireless broadband as a backup, for those times when hotel staff are being forcibly dragged by their inappropriates into the 21st century….
The previous readers have said it. Make it work and include it in the price. The idea of paying $20 or $30 for access to something that should be as standard as a bed, shower or TV. To me it does show some level of ignorance of their guests and what is important.
Thanks for the comments guys. I think it’s a simple fact that most hoteliers just don’t get it. Eventually they will – they’ll have to or go out of business – but you’d have thought the penny would have dropped by now.
[...] hotels don’t get WiFi: 2 – Coverage My previous post on hotels and their attitude to providing internet facilities for guests drew quite a response. It seems as though it’s not just me that gets angry with [...]