WiFi is secretly free everywhere

Rachel Clarke is currently hanging out in the big apple, staying at the W hotel with a $17 a day charge for Internet.

She writes:

“However, this evening I got a call from the hotel Customer Services performing a satisfaction survey. Now, this is the first time I've been subject to this - a small annoyance but at least they are trying to establish what their customers think. I mentioned my annoyance over paying for connectivity and how many other hotels don't, then thought nothing more of it. But then there was a follow up call 30 minutes later from another section of staff just to checkup on my complaint. After informing me there was free wi-fi in the ground floor public areas he then proceeded to remove the charges from the bill and promise to take up with the manager.”

Hmm.. After reading this, I am reminded of the auto industry and the secret warranties. Back in the late 80s, early 90s, there was this huge stink over car makers sending notices out to dealers which in effect said, this is a problem and if the customer comes in and complains, fix it and it’s covered but don’t be telling everybody.  Enter the Internet, people posting this up on web sites, etc, and the practice pretty much went away (mostly, not completely).

So, maybe the drill on finally getting all these high end hotels to wise up is to simply take one of the following approaches:

1. Pro-actively complain, Rachel style, and don’t wait for the “hows it goin” survey. Pound on em 30 seconds after you arrive promptly mentioning Mzzz Clarke got it comp’d what am I, chopped liver?

or

2. Pretend the Internet connection is like the in-room porn movies you don’t watch. Do the shocked routine at the desk at even the suggestion that you would be so geek as to actually log in and do work while relaxing.  Or in the spirit of the picture was fuzzy, couldn’t make out the sounds either mode, just complain the connection was complete crap and scream about how much time you lost just trying to log into the damn thing.

If enough people get this stupid charge off the bill, maybe the industry will see the errors of thy ways.

Jet lag’s a bitch, eh Rachel!