The (still ridiculous) cost of staying connected
May 8th, 2009 by Hugh Kennedy
As a frequent traveler for business, I was heartened to see today’s NYTimes article on the absurd, ongoing practice of still charging people for internet access in hotels. Especially business hotels. Hotels from the Mirage in Las Vegas to a Marriott near you still charge $5, $10, even $15 a day for a service many coffee shops and even my excellent tire store offer as a free service. What I find particularly galling is after renting a conference room at a hotel (like, say, The Charles in Cambridge), you ask the helpful staff person for a wireless code and they tell you how happy they’d be to provide one in exchange for either your room number or the sum of $25. At which point you discover a potential projectile use for the inedible bagels laid out as breakfast. And though I’m not tech-savvy enough at the data packet level to know, it seems that some hotels employ devices to knock out your portable cell modem within minutes of it connecting.
I say Twitterers unite. Push these people out into the open! Wherever you see charges for wireless in hotel rooms, tweet about it. These people need to know it’s no longer 1999.
May 12th, 2009 at 1:09 am
Is it ok to have just one comment regarding this topic? Ive been reading your blog. Keep it up for us to be updated!! Can you post more often?
May 14th, 2009 at 12:22 am
Hey this is good stuff. So glad you posted. I like reading blogs like this. Sandy