Would You Stay at a Hotel Without Wi-Fi? | huffingtonpost.com
How would you react if, while traveling in Europe, you arrived in your hotel room, plopped down your bags, and tried to join the hotel's Wi-Fi network, only to find... (spinning, spinning).... nothing?
We're not talking about having to hang out with your laptop in the lounge downstairs because the Wi-Fi doesn't reach your room. And it can't be blamed on a frozen modem or a confused router.
The hotel, it turns out, doesn't have an internet connection, Wi-Fi or otherwise.
You experience (pick one): Panic? Anger? Relief?
It's incredible how something that was presented just a few years ago as a new amenity is now considered almost a right. (In fact, an Estonian tourism official recently told me that in her country free Wi-Fi is, in fact, considered a "human right.")
Rewind a decade or so, and the hotels I was inspecting and reviewing in Europe were eagerly embracing the new Wi-Fi technology, especially as it represented a new revenue stream. Some charged by the hour, others by the day. But almost everyone, it seemed, charged. In the years since, as the cost of offering Wi-Fi has dropped and online hotel bookings have become more competitive, I've noticed that many hotels offer the service for free to attract guests.
