The cost of an internet connection
When I travel on business I tend to take internet access in the hotel for granted nowadays - it doesn’t have to be wireless but it seems to be becoming the norm. But how much should it cost? I guess it depends on the class of hotel, but the £15 for 24 hours I’ve just been charged by the Holiday Inn Ipswich Orwell seems excessive - especially as my home broadband costs less than that for an entire month! The alternative was £6 for an hour or £75 for a week - not exactly a great choice. Most of the hotels I’ve stayed in recently have had free wireless (even some of the B&Bs I’ve stayed in have free wireless) so £15 for 24hrs is definitely a bit steep.
What do you think?
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Even though we have a supposedly “preferred” list of hotels, when I travel I tend to pick my own and go for little non-chain places. It’s always less than the big name ones anyway (I don’t get about a bar or being in the centre of town or anything - I travel alone and drinking whilst alone is just as recipe for disaster).
Anyway….
These places tend to have Internet these days and normally it’s just the owner’s residential connection so it tends to be free. If not, well, I just find an “open” router nearby (of course, this is not the official company line but hey ho….).
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I suggest you get yourself a 3g data card. Almost as fast as broadband, faster than many dodgy hotel wireless connections, and many have bundled wifi minutes as well for some network or other.
I have the orange one as part of my business package wth them - costs £25 per month for unlimited use - i used to regularly spend twice that a month on hotel connections.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Yeah - think I’m going to go for a smaller place for my next 2 weeks away on work rather than staying at the Holiday Inn again.
As for a 3G card I’ve been wondering about it, but while the company pays for my internet connection and provides me with a BlackBerry that’s generally enough for me