This story appears in the
March 2004 issue of
Entrepreneur.
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Once you've gotten used to zipping around the net with a
high-speed connection at your home or office, the dial-up
connection you might have to use at a hotel seems as slow as
molasses. Luckily, major hotel chains have been installing in-room,
high-speed connections, but until now, they charged about $10 per
day. Good news: That fee is disappearing.
- Wingate
Inn
- was one of the first midscale hotel
chains to offer free high-speed Internet access as part of its
price (about $99 per night). You'll also find free high-speed
wireless access at an increasing number of the chain's 130
properties. Wingate Inn hotels will have free wireless Internet
access installed in all guestrooms and public areas by the end of
the first quarter of 2004.
- Marriott
- now offers free high-speed Internet
access at all its Courtyard hotels. By the end of this year, free
high-speed access will be available at Marriott's Fairfield
Inn, Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites and TownePlace Suites brands.
At full-service Marriott and Renaissance hotels, you'll still
pay $9.95 per day for a high-speed connection.
- Omni
Hotels
- offers guests free wireless high-speed
Internet access at 38 of its 40 hotels nationwide
- Hilton
- offers free high-speed access at all
Hilton Garden Inn properties. Elsewhere in the giant chain, which
includes Embassy Suites Hotels, DoubleTree and Hilton Hotels,
access to a high-speed line (wired or wireless) in your hotel room
is hit or miss. You get high-speed access at selected Hampton Inns,
but only in the hotel business center, not necessarily in the
room.
- Starwood
- offers high-speed lines in every room
at its 16 W Hotels and at some of its Four Points, Sheraton or
Westin properties. But the service is not free; prices range from
$4.95 to $14.95. Only Four Points offers the service free of
charge.
Chris McGinnis, travel correspondent for CNN Headline News,
is author of The Unofficial Business Travelers' Pocket
Guide.