The Homa Files

Answer: Because they can …

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Excerpted from Business Week

Think about it: You can get free Wi-Fi at a McDonald’s or at a city park, but check into some 4 & 5 star hotels and they’ll charge you as much as $15 peer day to check your email or update Twitter.

Q: Why isn’t Wi-Fi free at fancier places? Aren’t you supposed to get better service for paying more?

You’d think that, wouldn’t you?

But hotel Wi-Fi has turned that rule on its head — budget hotel chains offer free Internet service while fancy chains tack on extra fees.

The assumption on the part of expensive hotels must be that the more you pay, the less price-sensitive you are.

If your room costs $500 a night, are you going to sweat an extra $15?

Caveat emptor !

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Factoids

• 95 percent of business travelers care if there is Wi-Fi or a wired connection in a hotel
• 63 percent of business travelers confirm, prior to booking, whether a hotel has Internet, 24 percent assume a hotel has guest Internet connections
• A poor hotel Wi-Fi experience influences 36 percent of business travelers on whether they re-book that specific hotel in the future
• Business travelers aged 35-44 are more likely to post complaints on travel websites, followed by 45-54 year olds.
• 79 percent of business travelers return to the same locations on business trips – 22 percent do this frequently
• 17 percent of business travel hotel guests don’t inform the hotel when they have a poor Wi-Fi experience
• 22-34 year-old business travelers are more forgiving with a poor hotel Wi-Fi service with only 25 percent stating it influences whether they book that specific hotel in the future

This entry was posted on November 27, 2012 at 6:31 am and is filed under Hospitality, Mktg - Pricing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.