The value of free internet

One of the feaures of travel these days is the (usually-met) expectation of high internet charges in your hotel. It’s common in Europe, for instance, for hotels to charge eye-watering rates to let you get online: charges of £20 or equivalent per day aren’t unusual.

Some hotels include internet costs in their room rates, treating it as part of the plumbing, as it were. Even if room rates are elevated to cover the cost, it’s perceived as a good deal when your experience in the hotel is “free internet.”

That’s been the case in my hotel, the Luxor in Las Vegas, where I’ve been staying during this week. They say quite clearly that unlimited internet access is included in the room rate.

But I wonder what the Mandalay Bay Hotel is thinking with its pricing – just look at the screenshot of their website showing their rate when I visited the site on my smartphone. The screenshot shows $525. Not a typo!

I have no idea what the Mandalay’s pricing goals or philosophy are, and the place where I accessed their website was in the convention centre attached to the hotel. But the price is eye-watering nevertheless, don’t you think?

I wonder when it will become a common competitive differentiator for hotels and other public places to offer you “free internet.” It might be the difference for a connected traveller to choose your place instead of another when he or she can get online with wifi or a wired connection without fuss or concern.

Perception is everything.

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Neville Hobson

Social Strategist, Communicator, Writer, and Podcaster with a curiosity for tech and how people use it. Believer in an Internet for everyone. Early adopter (and leaver) and experimenter with social media. Occasional test pilot of shiny new objects. Avid tea drinker.

  1. Daniel Stoddart

    Looks like I won't be staying at Mandalay Bay anytime soon. Then again, I'm the type of person who can't understand the allure of Lost Wages, Nevada. Perhaps it's my mathematical education.

  2. Neville Hobson

    +Rich Fisher in the Luxor, the internet is wired. So a problem if you have mobile devices that don't have ethernet ports.I've been using Connectify.me, a really cool Windows application that makes my netbook a wifi hotspot so smartphones, etc, can get connected too.

  3. Neville Hobson

    +Rich Fisher in the Luxor, the internet is wired. So a problem if you have mobile devices that don't have ethernet ports.I've been using Connectify.me, a really cool Windows application that makes my netbook a wifi hotspot so smartphones, etc, can get connected too.

  4. James Cridland

    That easily beats my all time high of the Athens Hilton, which charges the comparatively cheap $55 a night.
    http://james.cridland.net/blog/hilton-hotels-should-come-clean-about-their-internet-charges/ has more.

    That is a convention centre price, though. And I bet you are interested what the Las Vegas Convention Centre costs, aren't you? Hold on there, caller…

    …and I'm back. For internet in the booth we're in in the LVCC, we'll be charged (for one computer only, no routers or sharing allowed): … drum roll … $1245 + 8% sales tax.

  5. James Cridland

    That easily beats my all time high of the Athens Hilton, which charges the comparatively cheap $55 a night.
    http://james.cridland.net/blog/hilton-hotels-should-come-clean-about-their-internet-charges/ has more.

    That is a convention centre price, though. And I bet you are interested what the Las Vegas Convention Centre costs, aren't you? Hold on there, caller…

    …and I'm back. For internet in the booth we're in in the LVCC, we'll be charged (for one computer only, no routers or sharing allowed): … drum roll … $1245 + 8% sales tax.

  6. James Cridland

    I am, however, quite happy for hotels to charge for wifi, as long as they tell me first. $5 for a day's wifi avoids people from misusing it, and you're a little less likely to be given a wifi connection that takes five minutes to download the BBC News front page.

  7. James Cridland

    I am, however, quite happy for hotels to charge for wifi, as long as they tell me first. $5 for a day's wifi avoids people from misusing it, and you're a little less likely to be given a wifi connection that takes five minutes to download the BBC News front page.

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