Hotel wifi

October 24th, 2012 at 7:00 am by David Farrar

Matthew Backhouse at NZ Herald reports:

Hotels are charging exorbitant rates for Wi-Fi and guests are much better off paying for mobile internet, a consumer advocate says.

A survey of New Zealand’s top central-city hotels, as rated by Five Star Alliance, has found only two offer free wireless internet in rooms – despite some exclusive suites costing more than $2000 a night.

It’s like charging for water. I can understand 10 years ago charging extra for wifi, but the vast majority of hotel guests today will want wifi – either because they are travelling from overseas or to reduce their mobile data usage.

What I want to do one day is set up a website (or get an accom website to do it) which lists the wifi charges for every hotel and motel in NZ, so people can pick ones with cheap or free wifi. I think that would provide an incentive for more accom providers to stop charging for it. Whne you have have paid over $200 for a room, it is aggravating to be told 24 hours of wifi will cost more than a month’s data for a residence.

The other top hotels either make guests buy packets of data or charge up to $45 a day.

The rates compare poorly with mobile data plans, which give 1GB of data for an average of $20 a month.

I used to have a vodem, just to avoid hotel wifi charges. Now I tether my iPhone.

Tourism Industry Association chief executive Martin Snedden disagreed that free Wi-Fi was the norm overseas, saying he had been charged as much as $30 a day during a recent trip to Europe and America.

Now sure where Martin stayed, but in the US it is free most places I have stayed at.

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Posted in Internet, New Zealand | 28 Comments »

A bad place to stay

February 26th, 2008 at 10:09 am by David Farrar

Most of my “reviews” are positive.  The last bad hotel review I think was in Rome in 2004.

But as a service to readers I should mention Saturday Night in the Quest on Cintra Lane. I was crashing with a friend who was staying there briefly until her new apartment was ready.

A minor gripe is that there was no table for working on – just a coffee table.  So many people travel with laptops nowadays a bit of table space is necessary,

But the bed was simply horrendous.  It wasn’t so much that it was a small single bed (reminded me of the university hostel ones we used to label as contraceptives), but it was so cheap and tacky.  No real base, the wheels were such it moved about all night, and it was just awful. You get better I reckon in a youth hostel.

The final injury was when we checked out late (due to confusion over who was checking out).  Now I have no problems with a penalty for checking out late, but they refused to compromise on charging us anything less than than an entire extra night’s fee, even though the room was still available before check in.

The receptionist was very nice and I don’t blame her as she can not alter policy.  But there was no manager even available whom I could talk to.

The late checkout isn’t the biggie though.  The beds are just nasty.

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Posted in New Zealand | 6 Comments »