I don’t stay at hotels that don’t offer free WiFi access. I work in hotel rooms, I rarely watch cable (which is free), use the pool (free), or play in-room video games (which I wouldn’t know if they’re free or not). Some folks, however, seem to think that nickel and diming customers by charging outrageous (usually around $10/day) fees for using WiFi is good business practice.

Hotspot International CEO Louie Miller thinks so. From an article featured on 4Hoteliers.com:

Under the Hotspot business model, guests purchase time cards that they can use to access the hotel’s Internet. His company has grown to include 50 hotels in four countries, mostly on a revenue share model in which Hotspot maintains the systems and splits the sales.

“If the hotels stopped and think about what they’re giving away, they’re giving away telephony and, potentially, home movies,” Miller said. “I don’t think it’s viable that hotels will ever give it away. People have to take into consideration and look at Internet as being the infrastructure for delivering additional services and, if they give it away, they’re giving away other services. For example, I’m sitting in a hotel right now and it costs me $3 to $5 per minute to call the U.S. If they give me the Internet for free, I can hook up Skype and my Bluetooth headset and call the U.S. for two cents per minute.”

Huh? By that same logic hotels should charge for basic cable television (they don’t) and slather the walls with cell phone blocking paint (maybe they do?). And, by the way, downloading movies is unpractical and irrelevant to business travelers, who are the ones most likely to use WiFi access, Lou.

Oh and Lou, if you’re paying $3 to $5 per minute to call the USA from your hotel phone when you can buy wireless internet for $10/day from the hotel your “sitting in right now,” hook up Skype and call for two cents/minute, then you’re not very good at arithmetic or you enjoy spending lots more money than necessary anyhow. Also, most of us quit using hotel phones a long time ago. Calling from the US to the UK on a cell phone costs about .35/minute.

Hotspot has a losing business model (in the US market anyhow), and it probably knows it. Convincing hotels to abandon its business customers by telling them we’re downloading movies and Skyping around the world instead of using their in-room services is the only card they have to play. Hotels will continue to move towards free WiFi, and if they don’t, the citywide WiFi networks being proposed across the country will make it irrelevant anyhow.

WiFi: for free, or not for free? - 4Hoteliers


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