A Hotel Service Fee for Wi-Fi? We Don’t Think So.

The leading candidate for a future free hotel internet service: Wi-Fi. Surveys show it’s already the most desired amenity for guests. It’s future may be to become as standard as telephones and color TVs.

But will hotels add it to the growing number of service fees? Probably not.

“And now that even McDonald’s offers free WiFi it’s no wonder hotel guests feel it should be free,” writes hospitality consultant Madigan Pratt in 4Hotelier, adding that it is likely hotels will not dare to charge a fee for a service consumers expect to get for free, even though some hotels still add the service to its list of fees.

That may change, however, as hotel executives realize they will have to offer free Wi-Fi or risk image damages.

“All you have to do is look though negative comments on TripAdvisor,” Pratt writes.

For example:

• “Another disappointment was that WiFi was an additional charge. For this class of hotel, one would expect it to be included.”

• “I would probably prefer a Holiday Inn or equivalent where you can get free wifi, free parking, nice pool, free breakfast, and convenience for $100 OR LESS A NIGHT.”

• “WiFi was expensive and we had to pay for the parking as well. Why don’t they include them in the room price?”

• “All the extras in the hotel are very pricy and WiFi is an extra USD 15 per day.”

• “Also like many have said on here, it’s crazy to charge $15 for WiFi when the room and everything else inside the hotel costs so much.”

If hotel guests continue to expect free Wi-Fi, expectations may very soon be met. If travelers just keep on commenting on TripAdvisor, they might expect to find their requests to be heeded in the very near future.