Great post by Doc Searls:
Imagine going to the sink shower or toilet in your hotel room and being told water will cost you $14.95 per day. And that you’ll have to call the front desk to have water turned on. And then having to call the front desk all over again the next time you use the plumbing, just because you haven’t used water in the last half hour.
That’s what it’s like for travellers whose only required amenity is broadband. But, to be fair, we’re only talking about expensive hotels here. At cheap hotels that provide free broadband, there’s the additional benefit of no spash screens, no useless promotional bullshit (as lame and annoying as the defaulted hotel channel on your room TV), no expensive and buggy billing schemes (with multiple charges the per day the common result). Just, bandwidth.
The graphic above comes from the amenity selection form of a travel site (they’re all the same in this regard, near as I can tell). All the hotels, and the reservation intermediaries, pretty much disregard the one thing that a large number of business (and other) travelers want. Why?
Great points. I especially dislike the way hotels present their overpriced net access as if it is some kind of rare caviar offered to me at a bargain price.
