W SF - Internet Access Annoyance!

[fozzyo]

Well, we are enjoying our stay in the W San Fran, and are also enjoying internet access for about $15 a day in our room! This in a city where there are freebie wireless hotspots all over the place ... including as we found out last night in the lobby of our very own hotel!

Yes, you can pay $15 a day (midday - midday) or you can use the internet for naff all in the lobby! Which while free isn't very convenient. We people can walk in off the street without paying a single cent to use the Internet, or you can pay around $1,000 for a stay and then extra for Internet usage. What's wrong with this picture?

A lot by the sounds of the reaction from the hotel staff ... its a 'company policy' blah blah blah. One that they don't seem to support since as soon as you query it at reception they appear to remove the billing line from your bill fortunately. Though we will confirm that when we checkout on Monday.

I have to say I am enjoying the hotel, but this has left a rather bitter taste for me. Basically they are making a shed load of money from expense accounts and guests who don't realise free Internet access is available.

Just wanted to share so anyone else staying here can get free in-room access.

Mat xx

[Darren Wheeler]

Never tried the freebie approach in the Westin. Oh well, too late now. [:(]

This is par for the course across America in hotels that brand themselves toward business travellers - don't forget that their bills are picked up by their companies so there's little incentive to bother about the fees, complacency all around. However this is typical of W nitpicking. I do find in the US that the smaller the hotel the more likely that wireless is free, odd way around really.

When in New York, I regularly pop into various favourite hotels' lobbies between meetings to check emails and surf, to get my own back at the them for charging me while staying.

Glad you like the W SF, it's quite a cool hotel if you avoid the working girls in the bar. However, I fell out with them in 2002 over a $20 misposting on a $5,000 bill and won't ever go back!

This practice is outrageous.It's exactly the same at The Palace Hotel(another SPG property).Free in the lobby but not in the rooms (although it was password protected to stop Joe Bloggs wandering in off the street).They wouldn't remove the charge -company policy etc etc,so I hope you have better luck on that front when you checkout.It's not just specific to SPG either.
Like you say Matt it's not a cheap room - why the need to nickel and dime?

[mitchja]

I 100% agree. $15 a day is actually quite cheap for US hotel room high speed internet!! I've paid more than that before now.

I've never understood SPG's policy of offering free WiFi in all their hotel lobbies either.

I've not even had working in-room internet access in the last 2 SPG hotels I've stayed in either [V]

Try and enjoy the rest of the W - it's one of my favorite hotels in San Francisco.

Regards

[HighFlyer]

It was the same charge at the Hyatt in SFO when I was there. I could actually get onto the Cloud from my room but the connectivity was a bit crap and as i was there on business I ended up paying the $15 on two days and just expensing it back - which i think they think most people will do.

For a city like San Francisco, there shouldnt be any charging in hotels for Internet access. I guess all we can do is keep feeding bcak our complaints to the hotels. Either that or join the hoards of loiterers in the hotel lobbies and at the Apple store [:)]

Thanks,
Sarah

[RichardMannion]

Kind of like when your Corp rate includes Wi-Fi and they still try and charge you for it.....

[Darren Wheeler]

It only seems to be the largest city centre hotels that do this. While away, the 3 Best Westerns I stayed at all had free Wi-Fi and pretty quick too, all included in the price. The average room cost was about £48.

You can pretty much figure it out by brand. W, Westin, nicer hotels like the Palace - pay. Cheaper brands, free. Marriott and Renaissance, you pay. Courtyard and Residence Inn (not to mention Fairfield, Townplace etc etc), it's free.

I have not really found this to be any different in the UK, or Europe in general. I have stayed at Marriott and Renaissance properties in the UK and Italy - charge. In fact, I have stayed at Courtyards in Europe and, unlike in the US, they actually levied a daily charge of between 25 and 30 dollars a day (varying with exchange rate of course), at which point I'd just get on the underground and go into work before paying ...

Am currently enjoyed free high speed Wi-Fi in my hotel room as I type - again why more hotels can't do this is beyond me [xx(]

Originally posted by Tinkerbelle
Am currently enjoyed free high speed Wi-Fi in my hotel room as I type - again why more hotels can't do this is beyond me [xx(]

They all can ... [;)]

It's basic market segmentation. In the end, if you have a weekly stay at the Renaissance Chancery Court and pay 250 or 300 pounds, one way or another you aren't price sensitive - or not too much. So, no bfast included, no internet, etc etc. No built in expectation in the product that all is included, so they nickel and dime you. I'm sure there are folks whose job it is to set prices so that max number of rooms can be filled, and max number of bfasts and internet offerings added on.

At the other end of the market, we go after the cheapest possible offering. Prices tend to flatten out between different hotels, and features might be a consideration in choosing one place over another. So someone starts throwing in breakfasts, and internet, and pretty soon they all have to do it. It's not the same with the swankier properties 'cause most folks don't choose swanky based on price in the first place, I'd guess.

You would think this might change with time, but don't bet on it. Just look at how phone connectivity in hotels is handled. More likely, we will have widespread wifi and will just skip around the hotel network, just like we do with cellphones today.

[Decker]

Now I read this somewhere in one of those pop-vox economics books - was it Freakonomics?

Originally posted by Decker
Now I read this somewhere in one of those pop-vox economics books - was it Freakonomics?

Precisely. Or The Accidental Economist, or whatever the guy is called who writes in The Economist. Or maybe you just had the misfortune to stumble in an econ 101 class sometime in your life [;)]

It's the same principle as why we pay one price for a medicine in one country, and another in a different country. Works very well if the markets are nicely segmented, not so well if we all voted with our feet and decided to stay at the courtyard in San Bruno by the airport, rather than in a nice downtown SF hotel ...

Or, within a hotel it sometimes works by day of the week too, right? Weekend stays in nice hotels that are primarily business driven - you get 'bfst and web' included rates. As soon as you include a weekday in your stay, the rate changes.