Hotel Wi-Fi: Don’t Pay – Stay Elsewhere

We’ve never been able to understand why the more expensive hotels charge for wi-fi and the less expensive offer it free, especially when those same hotels are trying to attract business travelers, who want to get work done. The simple answer, of course, is that they can. Many business travelers are booking less expensive hotels, even if their employers will allow them to pay more.  The estimate is 40% of hotels charge. In defense, with no more revenue for gauging people for telephone calls, they need a replacement.

USAToday has a great table of hotel chains that do and do not charge, which can be found here.

Cellular modems are an option, of course. On our recent trip, we borrowed one to field test, and found it an acceptable work tool. But a plan costs $30-60 per month, and rental costs at least $6 a month. You have to be traveling regularly to justify this, and the usage caps can be low as low as 250MB a month.

When we can, we’ll just pick a good hotel that gives us what we need.