I was recently traveling and when I went to check my email at the hotel, I noticed I had no internet connection. I called down to the front desk to find out the code, automatically thinking it would be free, and was told there was a resort charge of $9.95 per day, which included room and public space access to Wi-Fi. I was stunned that, in this day and age, hotels are still charging for internet access. When I got back home, I started checking random hotels and was amazed that about 30 percent of the time, hotels were charging either a connection fee or a resort fee for internet access.
That one simple fact will be enough for me never to return to that hotel. Paying for internet these days is liking paying for shipping… it just does not sit well with consumers. While I understand hotels like to use the internet to drive sales, the fact of the matter is that $10 or so you would make on the sale of Wi-Fi is nothing compared to what it costs the property for not having free internet.
If you are not offering free internet and a guest does not want to pay the connection fee, they could very well end up racking up data charges during their stay. And who do you think they are going to hold responsible for those charges when they get their bill? And how much do you want to bet they make a comment about it on your review page?
But that is only one aspect of why you should not be charging for internet. Besides not wanting to upset your guests, here are a few more reasons Wi-Fi should be readily available on every inch of the property:
Collecting Data – if you have ever used outside Wi-Fi services, you know you usually must sign in to use the service. This means you are able to obtain names and email addresses. The beauty of this is you can obtain the information without openly soliciting it.
Social Sharing – you want your guests sharing their experience as much as possible, something they are less likely to do if they are eating up their data rather than using your Wi-Fi.
Improving Online Presence – your hotel’s online presence is extremely reliant on your review profiles. In our marketing tips, we discussed how important it is to try to capture reviews at the moment of checkout when you have confirmed a good stay and are virtually guaranteed a positive review. Without Wi-Fi, the chances of having a guest leave a review while they are still at the front desk are reduced significantly.
Push Notifications and Alerts – most people set their phones to NOT send notifications and alerts when they are not on Wi-Fi. If you have a system set up to send offers to guests when they are on property, without Wi-Fi, those notifications will never be received by your guests.
Family and Small Business – kids these days live with a tablet attached to their hip. More and more small business owners are working on the road. Point being, both demographics rely heavily on Wi-Fi when they are traveling. If you don’t have it available, you won’t even show up in their initial search.
You really need to weigh the benefits of the small fee you can collect for internet over the value to the guest as well as the fact you could be losing return guests by not offering free Wi-Fi. Additionally, as stated above, you can significantly hurt your social media and overall online presence by requiring guests to pay for their internet.
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