the pending death of "pay-as-you-surf" internet

FREE or pay-as-you-surf Internet in hotel rooms is a hot topic in hospitality conversations right now. So like any good sheep I’ll follow and give my two cents. If you read this blog regularly you know I’m a big fan of FREE Internet. I believe with an unwavering constitution that Internet in your hotel room should be FREE (read this post to understand my stance). It’s my technologically advanced right! I deserve FREE Internet! I HATE paying $9.99 when I want to get online…but I’d happily pay $15 to not care if I was paying $9.99.

I’ve had dozens of conversations about this topic, and inevitably there is someone making it out to be a complex issue that has many different factors contributing to if a hotel provides FREE Internet. I hear them, but to them I say Bologna! (pronounced ba-low-nee for those who speak no French) Lines have been drawn and there are three camps when it comes to “how should a hotel recoup costs for providing web access to customers”.camp #1: the money-grubbers
I think that title says who this camp is. This camp believes vehemently that Internet access is not an inclusive service and should cost extra. They love the additional revenue pay-as-you-surf supposedly proves to generate and are not willing to discuss the possible or plausible revenue benefits of inclusive pricing and better customer satisfaction. This camp should be forced to pack up their tents one week per month and work from hotels that do not offer free Internet. Or, everyone in this camp should be forced to pay for Internet access by the day, hour, and minute at their normal work place and then be forced to submit justification with the receipt on what they accomplished during those charged Internet hours. Or, forced to pay for it out of pocket like the thousands of entrepreneurs who don’t get to “expense” Internet access and feel nickle-and-dimed by the pay-as-you-surf camp.

camp #2: the corner drug dealers
This camp is like the corner speed dealer getting a casual user hooked. Stay at our hotel and we’ll give you crappy casual speed for free. If you want to have web conference calls, host a webinar, give a demo, perform remote actions on a system via remote control software, or let your kids play games you have to buy the “good speed”. The good speed is expensive, and they know you will always generally feel the need for speed. And once you get the good speed you can’t really go back to the free speed…and they know it. This camp should be forced to perform their normal daily business functions for an extended period of time on the “free speed”. And then smacked with a purse when they ask for good speed. This is also the camp that uses soft word rhetoric in calling themselves peace makers and collaborators by giving us a choice. “If you are a casual user then you get it free.” In my world there is no casual Internet use, and my world generally doesn’t include streaming video or online gaming. But as iTunes, Hulu, and ModernFeed become mainstream and talking with clients via Skype is normal, that is the casual user and then the corner drug dealer forces me to pay for speed.

camp #3: camp of the free, web surfing rave
This is the camp that wants all the speed FREE. If all you have is slow speed then I want that FREE, but if you have high speed i want that FREE, too! It is my Larry G. Roberts given right to have it FREE. This I believe is the largest camp, of which i am a card carrying member. Give me FREE or I’ll give you pay-as-you-surf Internet death!

And that then leads me to the real point of this post. Unless something changes pay-as-you-surf hotel Internet will go the way of pay-as-you-talk hotel phones. Phone calls used to be a pretty good money maker for hotels. X dollars per call and then charges per minute. If you traveled regularly on business your hotel phone bill was hefty. First came the invention of 1-800 calling cards, so then hotels started to charge for the 1-800 calls and local calls to make up for lost revenue. Then came the mobile phone. Reception made it hard to only use mobile phones, so hotels still invested heavily in PBX infrastructure. But hotels quickly found their phone investment would never pay for itself because mobile phones became business phones and free VOIP via computer came about (i.e. Skype) and hotel phones are now a required convenience to call the front desk. Phones are now just a cost of doing business. Internet access is a requirement for doing business (both personal business and business business).

I’ve heard a few technology executives from some hotel and vendor companies say that satellite Internet will never be fast enough to meet the demands of the consumer. They may be right and probably are, but what I can promise is that if it doesn’t meet the requirement someone will invent something that will. Being fixed to a specific location for highly capable wireless high speed Internet access will be a thing of the past in 5 years (maybe less). Internet access is already at the milestone hotel phones reached with the introduction of the early mobile phone where “good enough” is already applying. I’m paying for this cellular based wireless service and it is fast enough to do what I need, and it’s FREE. Note it’s not really FREE, I just already paid for it. So why would I pay $9.99 to use your Internet. Especially if I can’t expense it. But if your Internet was already included in my room rate then it is FREE and I’d have the choice to use it or my Internet. And if I chose your Internet then you get to ask me who I am…bonus for the hotel.

I believe we are at cross-roads for hoteliers. Pay-as-you-surf Internet will go the way of the pay-as-you-talk phone and for many hotels, especially those without wireless. Infrastructure costs will either be sunk or take much longer to pay off as the hard decision is made on how to off-set those costs. It is time to make the decision that Internet should be FREE. If you cannot figure out a way to provide it FREE then I’ll use my own and stop paying for yours altogether!

Photos curteousy of dana 2, miss rouge, rightee, and TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

proving me wrong, proving me right

There was an interesting post today on HOTELS that is a good follow up to my post what technology do you expect from your hotel?. Hotel Sax Chicago, apparently dubbed “Hotel Microsoft” (who knew?), has unveiled some current and future technologies from Xbox ready rooms to an entertainment lounge to in-room touch screens that control lighting and temperature.

As I was reading the article I was rethinking my statement that hotels cannot expect to implement better technology than the customer has at home. After all, I don’t have an Xbox (or any other video game unit) and most of the frequent travelers I know don’t either. I also don’t have touch screens to control my home amenities and probably won’t for a foreseeable future. Hotel Sax Chicago will most likely have better technology than almost any guest, and their point is they will draw guests because of it (or they hope).

But the reality is the in-room touch screens are only in the presidential suites and more of the hotel’s rooms have normal technology for a starting rate of $450/night.When at some point in the future the cost of the “marketing technology” becomes affordable enough to retrofit into every hotel room it will be affordable enough that the clients that pay to stay at Hotel Sax will have it in their own house.

Really what Hotel Sax is doing is marketing. Having these rooms is a marketing technique, and a good one, but really is not an initiative to provide every customer with a technology experience they cannot get at home. And in proving me right the Chicago Tribune said, “…that’s why Microsoft is in Hotel Sax — to let people live with and get used to unfamiliar technology so that they’ll want it in their homes.”

This post is one of many about the technology at Hotel Sax. If you read the ones from hospitality sites you will find a regular comment….customers want basic amenities and service delivered very well before they want touch screens in the room.

what technology do you expect from your hotel?

I attended the HOT and Green Hospitality Conference this week and was surprised at a statement that was made regularly in the presentations about technology in the hotel room (TV, TV stations, Internet, etc.).

“Guests expect the hotel in-room technology to be as good or better than what they have at home.”

I agree this is the way it used to be. It may even be true for some of the current guests from a higher age demographic (over 60). But based on my experience the hotel industry is catering to the 25 to 55 crowd, and the chance that it will have better technology than what that traveler has at home is slim…most likely none. The general population is more affluent and technologically advanced than ever before and will continue to be (even with our pending recession). The reality is many households already have a flat screen 32″ TV (or bigger) and maybe an LCD flat panel. They have home theater with surround sound. They have a DVR. They have over 100 channels. They have a iPod docking station or component cables that connect their iPod to their surround sound. They have wireless Internet on 802.11b if not 802.11g and hard connect rates of 6Mbps to 30Mbps. When at home they check email, download from iTunes, listen to music, and watch TV (sometimes all at the same time).

For many (at least me) when they do stay in a hotel that has a cool new technology the first action after arriving home is to go buy one of equal or better quality (welcome to GenX and GenY). After all, if you can’t keep up with a hotel you sure are not keeping up with the Jones.

But again and again I heard this statement and how hard it was to manage this problem. I have a solution…stop trying to manage the problem. It should not be a problem because hotels are not going to be able to surpass home technology in the room anymore. And besides, when I travel is it really an iPod docking station with movie surround sound that I want? No.

I think a good question is “What do you expect from your hotel?” For some the answer may be better technology, but the majority want something else.

As a self proclaimed technology evangelist here are the top 10 things I would like from my hotel room.

power outlets…lots of them
I want power…all over the place. I want four outlets next to the bed with at least two available for me. Oh, and they can’t be in the lamp because sometimes my power supply won’t fit (with the possible exception of on the top of the lamp base). I want four available outlets at the desk, and not so far under the desk that I have to be on my hands and knees to get to it. Better yet, stick a surge protector at the desk so my equipment is protected as well. I want absolute power…but absolute access to power will do.

FREE wireless Internet
Please give me FREE wireless Internet. This is quite possibly my biggest pet peeve when staying at a hotel. I get this feeling the hotel is yelling at me, “WE WILL MAKE YOU PAY!” I understand the plight of hotels that wireless Internet is expensive, especially if you already ran CAT5 to every room. But, I don’t literally mean I want it free. I just want it included in my nightly rate. The perceived value of FREE cannot be understated. FREE Internet makes me feel like I’m getting something free even though I’m paying for it as a room rate. It makes me feel valued and that the hotel understands my desires. If you can’t give me FREE wireless Internet then at least give me FREE Internet. Oh, and in that case I want a 20 foot CAT5 cable so I can wander all over the room (this was actually provided by Adam’s Mark this week). The speed of the Internet is really lesser of an issue than getting it FREE. (I’ll cover that topic in a post in the near future.)

a remote control that works
I want a TV remote control that works. It needs to work when I hit the power button, when I hit the volume button, and when I hit the channel button. I should not have to point it at crazy angles to turn the TV off and on. It should work exactly like my universal remote at home, which is a basic remote but it works every time.

let me see the TV
I want to see the TV from the bed or the desk. If Chrystal is traveling with me then I want her to be able see it from the bed and me from the desk. The room should be arranged so I don’t have to drag the desk over in order to work and watch ESPN at the same time.

good lighting
I want to see at the desk and see in the bathroom. The switch to more energy efficient lighting is awesome and I’m all for it. But if it means my wife has to turn on every light in the room while standing near the window in the morning to put on her makeup then we have kind of defeated the point. Give me good lighting in those two areas and I’m happy…so is Chrystal.

iron and ironing board
What’s with the new trend of having to ask to have an iron and ironing board delivered to the room? I want and need an iron, and it is usually at the last minute. If I have to wait 10 minutes for it to be delivered then I’m late for my meeting. “I thought I had an iron” is worse than “The dog ate my homework.”

odor free room
I do not want my room to smell like an ash tray, a restaurant kitchen, my high school locker room, or an industrial cleaning product. I want an odor free room. It should smell like a clean room (read no smells).

hot water
I want hot water. Not “hot enough” water, but real hot water. I like to take a really hot shower so I want really hot water. And while I’m on that I want the same water pressure I have at home. I have flow control faucets but I still get enough water pressure to enjoy it.

room to room privacy
I don’t want to hear what the guest in the next room is watching on TV or what deal he is trying to close on the speaker phone. I don’t care and it invades my privacy. I expect privacy way before I expect a flat panel TV that is bigger and better then mine at home.

clean sheets and a fluffy towel
If I need fresh bed linens or towels I want the service staff to recognize it when they are cleaning the room. I’m fine if the standard is to change the bed every other day and that I reuse a towel. I use a towel probably 5 times at home and change the sheets when it seems reasonable (or Chrystal changes the sheets really). And my towel should not scratch me when drying off out of the shower. It should be soft and feel like a towel should feel.

extra pillows
I want extra pillows in the closet. I may never use them but I want extra pillows.

FREE coffee with real cream and sugar
“Again with the FREE,” you say! I want FREE coffee with real creamer and sugar. Provide Mini Moos (half-and-half that does not need to be refrigerated) as it is way way way way better than powdered-non-dairy-gross-creamer. Oh and I’m a coffee snob so I don’t want Folgers. I doesn’t have to be Peet’s but give me something in the middle. The perception that I’m getting good coffee FREE makes me feel great. Don’t you love feeling great?!

clean room
I want a clean room and bathroom. I want it to look like it was vacuumed and scrubbed just for me. I don’t want toe nails in the bathroom corner. I don’t want candy wrappers under the bed. I don’t want someone else’s used tissue in the trash can. And I never again want someone’s underwear between the bed sheets (yes that really happened).

The reality is I want the same normal comforts I have at home but be taken care of like I’m special. Eating out and having someone pick up after me is a luxury, so do that really really well.

alarm clock that works in the dark
I want to see the alarm clock. Oh, and yes especially when the room is dark. I’m impressed if the clock is sleek, artsy, and black. I’m unimpressed if I can’t see it when I need to. If I want to know what time it is when I’m up and around I’ll look at my watch or my phone. I don’t want to search for my watch or phone in the dark. I want to see the glow-in-the-dark-big-huge-glowing-digital-clock.

attentive staff
I want better service. Pick up the phone at the front desk after no more than three rings. Have a concierge service that knows about local restaurants and which ones are good.

Do this better than everyone else and I may stay at your hotel (so will many many others). And if you have technology better than mine bonus for me. But the next time I stay most likely my technology will be better than yours.

The hotel-room-of-the-future project may disagree with me, but I’m betting my home technology will better in 2010.