Wireless Internet access is one of the top 5 “must have” amenities hotel guests are demanding according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 North American Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index Study. Susan Stellin of the New York Times recently published an article, “Make hotel guests happy with tech amenities” in which she also identified Internet access as one of the top factors in a positive guest experience. However many guests just hate paying for wi-fi; they are used to getting it free at coffee shops and most select service hotels. According to A. Pawlowskim of CNN, in an article titled “Internet fee irritates hotel guests” some of today’s largest high-class hotel brands are charging their guests for Internet, while budget brands even owned by the same company, are giving it away for free. This not only frustrates guests, but also baffles them. Unfortunately, guests also hate unreliable or slow Internet. This leaves hotels with a tough conundrum.
One of the fastest growing trends among hoteliers, a tiered bandwidth model, involves offering a free basic Internet service to all of your guests. This free plan may be restricted to a lower bandwidth and/or quality of service, while for-fee premium plans are available with higher bandwidths or quality of service. Additionally, some hotels restrict their basic plans to certain parts of the hotel while enabling their premium service throughout the property including meeting rooms.
This tiered model provides hoteliers the best of both worlds. They are able to offer free Internet to everyone while still generating revenue to at least partially offset their growing capital and operational costs of delivering high quality and reliable Internet.