Why the hospitality industry doesn’t get WiFi. Again.
I know by now that rambling on about wireless internet access isn’t exactly smashing the boundaries of literature and reportage, but today I encountered a classic example of why the hospitality industry (and by extension, the tourism industry) just doesn’t get it.
Moving house
I have just bought a house and will be moving into it at the weekend. However, before then, a variety of men need to come round and measure things, deliver things and generally drain my already ravaged bank account.
As my girlfriend has a proper job to go to, that means I’ve had to sit around in a furniture-less house all day, waiting for the parade of chaps in overalls to arrive and do their thing.
No internet access
Agonisingly for someone such as myself, I don’t have internet access at the new house yet. I won’t bore you with the details, but essentially TalkTalk is to customer service what Stacey Solomon from the X Factor is to the Oxford Union debating society. Don’t even consider signing up with them.
My only solution, therefore, has been to work offline on jobs that don’t absolutely need internet research.
Free WiFi in the local pub
That was the theory until I spotted that the pub on the corner has free WiFi. Note on the door for the men, off to the pub for the afternoon. Job’s a good ‘un.
BT OpenZone
Well, it would have been a good ‘un if the pub (The Sportsman in Norton, Sheffield in case anyone else fancies being shafted) didn’t display all the classic mistakes of idiots who don’t quite get why WiFi is important.
Despite the big sign out the front saying the pub has free WiFi, it appears as though none of the staff members inside know anything about it. After asking two, I got a murmur that there might be BT OpenZone (“or something like that”).
I fired up the laptop, and yes, they did. I could buy a 90 minute voucher for just £5.95. What a bargain.
‘Free’ WiFi access
When I asked whether they had a code that enabled it to be accessed without charge, the two amigos at the bar shrugged and denied any knowledge. “So it’s not free WiFi access at all then, is it?” I grumbled.
What is free WiFi access?
This is a scenario that can be applied to any number of establishments within the tourism industry all too easily. This has happened to me in hotels before, and it has made me angry there too. So let’s get one thing straight, shall we?
‘Free’ Wifi access that you have to pay for is not ‘free Wifi access’. It is, and this should be remarkably simple, plain old boring ‘Wifi access’. It is ‘free’ in the same way that a restaurant that allows you to sit down at a table and then charges you for the meal is offering a ‘free meal’. ie – it’s not free at all and you shouldn’t be advertising it as such.
If you are advertising free WiFi, then it needs to be the case that the customer occurs no charge at all in using it. This is knuckle-scrapingly simple, so get it into your Neolithic brains and then start training your staff properly…
Tags: free wifi, hotel wifi
I started by writing down similar examples – but then I realised that by the time I finished I’d have got no work done and you’d have a 2000 word comment to approve…