For the first time in a while, work patterns mean that I’m in a hotel for the week. It’s being made more bearable by the discovery that Radisson hotels (the Mountbatten in central London and the Edwardian at Heathrow) offer free (as in beer) wifi. Not only that, but it’s a decent speed, passes-through a VPN with no trouble, and has port 22 open for SSH sessions. All in all, it’s about all you could ask from a hotel service – which is more than you can say about most of them.
I suspect this may be a trend occuring – more and more hotels seem to be realising that charging for wifi is like charging for water. Once a few start offering internet access for free, those that don’t are at a disadvantage, and so the trend towards openess becomes free. Which won’t please Openzone and the likes, but that’s capitalism for you…
hmmm the Radisson in Glasgow still charges it seems (was there on Monday for a conference).
Hiltons *definitely* charge.
Was in a TravelInn Sunday night and was surprised to pick up non-WEP WiFi leaking from Strathclyde Uni, but you need a login to get access to their gateway.
I’m not sure which I find more annoying – the egregious charges, the lack of consistency of charges or the way that some hotels see wifi as a core amenity and advertise it, and some appear never to have heard of the internet…