Should You Charge for Internet?

Complimentary versus premium Internet continues to hog the hospitality spotlight; this Huffington Post article outlines several reasons you should not charge for Internet. More than ever, people feel that Wi-Fi is as much a commodity as a bed to sleep in or a lock on the door.

Often times though, offering Wi-Fi for free means the quality of the connection suffers because the hotelier is unable to recoup costs of infrastructure updates. Poor Internet leads to decreased loyalty and lost conference/meeting business.

The most popular way around this is tiered pricing, where basic Wi-Fi remains free and guests can upgrade for faster and preferred bandwidth as needed. The incremental revenue earned from guests who do upgrade can help offset the costs of adding more pipe.

We must also remember that when commodities become “free” to guests, they are typically rolled up into room rates, so we are still paying for them.

What does your property offer and why?