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| Credit Boyoun Kim |
Travelers sometimes compare Wi-Fi to
hot water, electricity or air — and when wireless access at a hotel shows up as
a line item on their bill, they tend to make a few other comparisons as well.
“I imagine the Wi-Fi fee has to be
what phones were 30 years ago and what baggage fees are to the airlines,” Brian
Watkins, chief executive of the jewelry company Ritani, said. “It’s found
money.”
“The nicer the hotel, the more expensive the
Wi-Fi is,” he said. “I expect at that price point, some things are going to be
included.”
“The public’s expectation switched from ‘It’s
nice when you have Wi-Fi’ to ‘You must have Wi-Fi,’ ” said Max Rayner, a
partner at the travel consulting company Hudson Crossing. “That evolution is a
problem for hotels,” he said, because, just like airlines, hotels are
discovering that charges for extra services may account for much of their
profit margins.
Surcharges and fees at hotels in the
United States were on track to reach a record $2.25 billion in 2014, up from
$2.1 billion in 2013, according to research published last year.
“Now you couldn’t imagine being at home or
traveling or in the airport or a restaurant and not having access to the Internet,”
said Lara Hernandez, vice president for digital, loyalty and partner marketing
for the Americas at the InterContinental Hotels Group. “It’s a traveler
expectation.”
In July 2013, InterContinental
announced it would offer free Internet to its loyalty program members, a perk
it added across its portfolio last year.
Others are following
InterContinental’s lead. In recent months, Marriott International, Starwood
Hotels & Resorts, and Hilton Hotels and Resorts have introduced such plans.
Hyatt Hotels began offering free Wi-Fi to all guests, whether or not they were
loyalty members and regardless of how they booked, in February.
In many cases, hotels still charge
for a faster tier of Internet access, suitable more for streaming movies or
playing online video games than for email or web surfing, although this, too,
may be waived for a hotel’s best customers.
“It’s to a point today where the
expectations are that Wi-Fi is expected” just as much as a clean room, running
water and a comfortable bed are, said Jeff Bzdawka, Hyatt’s senior vice
president for global hotel operations. “The comments through all of the
channels have been very positive,” since fees for access were eliminated, he
said. “We were able to remove an immediate pain point.”
Data backs up travelers’ anecdotes
of annoyance at paying for Wi-Fi. In the J.D.Poer 2014 North America Hotel
Guest Satisfaction Index Study, guests at luxury hotels registered a 65-point
drop in satisfaction with costs and fees when they had to pay for Internet
access. On a 1,000-point scale, that is a significant difference.
Frequent travelers say they have a
number of tactics to avoid paying for Internet access.
“If I’m at a hotel that’s going to
charge for the Wi-Fi, I’ll skip it and go to a Starbucks,” Professor Claxton
said. Seeking out a coffee shop where Wi-Fi can be had for the price of an
espresso is one common solution. Other travelers just complain at the front
desk and get the fee waived. Many, like Mr. Watkins, bring portable routers
like the MiFi to create a wireless hot spot.
Last year, the Federal
Communications Commissions investigated claims that Marriott International had
used technology to block personal Wi-Fi transmissions at a Nashville convention
center hotel, while charging exhibitors and others at a conference $250 to
$1,000 per device to use the hotel’s Wi-Fi. Last fall, the company agreed to
pay a penalty of $600,000 to resolve the investigation.
Industry specialists say that bad
word of mouth, magnified on travel review sites, can damage a high-end brand.
According to Loews Hotels and
Resorts, Wi-Fi charges were the top guest complaint before the brand eliminated
them at its North American hotels at the beginning of 2014. (Like Hyatt, Loews
does not put conditions on the perk.) Subsequently, guest satisfaction has
risen, the hotel chain said.
“This has got to be part of the
basic package,” said Chekitan Dev, a marketing professor at the Cornell
University School of Hotel Administration. He said hotels should scrap the
two-speed system most are embracing, arguing that the next generation of
traveler will not make the distinction between text and high-definition video.
“Given millennials’ voracious
appetite for Internet content 24/7, in real time, the only suitable answer is
free, fast and uninterrupted,” he said.
Free Wi-Fi makes for more satisfied
customers, Professor Dev said, which generates repeat business and referrals.
And tying free Wi-Fi to participation in a loyalty program is smart because
loyal customers are likelier to book multiple stays and to be receptive to
buying extra services.
“There’s money to be made, but the money
is to be made in a nonobvious way,” he said.
edited from The New York Times
