HotelPriceBot Travel Blog

Some hotels still charge an inappropriate fee to access the internet when in your room., in particular the higher end hotels it seems. Unfortunately a number of chain hotels signed up for long term contracts to suppliers who paid for the installing of the kit in the hotels for an annual fee. These hotels are forced to charge for the internet to recover these costs until the contracts expire. Other hotels just see paid for internet as a profit centre like the room service charges.

So how to avoid the $10 – $18 a day I have seen charged ? Firstly try and book a hotel that specifically says free internet. If it just says wifi or internet without the magic word free then you can be sure it is not complementary. If that route is not open to you then I can suggest two alternatives. One is to complain, along the lines of I paid a lot for my room or I am a frequent guest (a big help to be a hotel loyalty card member). If you do this complaint later in the evening when the management has all gone home then all you need to do is convince an employee on a low wage to make the problem go away for them, which is nit that hard. All employees can adjust additional charges ona  room bill.

If this route is not good for your karma, then Starbucks allows 2 hours free internet a day if you jump through a couple of hoops. Firstly, pick up a Starbucks card, put on $5 and pay for your drink with this. Then register the card on the Starbucks web site, and the final hoop is to register at AT&T who run the scheme. For this you will need a local address, so use the hotel’s or just google address in ‘this town’. Easy. Two hours free internet per card. If you need more get another card. OK, it is not free if you don’t want to drink a coffee but the $5 is a one off charge, in future you can always just sit outside in your car.