Hotels ripping customers off with extortionate Wi-Fi charges

Hotels are ripping customers off with extortionate charges for wireless internet access, according to the 30th edition of the Good Hotel Guide.

The authors of the guide, which is out today, say that as income from fixed phone lines in rooms has decreased, with business travellers switching to their mobile phones, some hotels have replaced this lost income with “rip-off” Wi-Fi prices.

Although the cost of an internet router is around £150 with negligible running costs after installation, guide inspectors found many hotels charging high prices for the service all the same.

Named and shamed was the Hotel Felix in Cambridge, which was charging £20 a day or £5 for access in August.  

London’s Savoy hotel was also singled out for charging close to £10 for 24-hour access as was the Knightsbridge Green hotel in London, which charges £12 a day.

The Felix has since reduced its daily rate to £14 a day and £4.50 an hour.

The Good Hotel Guide noted that Wi-Fi access is largely free in North America and that the UK’s Shire Hotels offers it as a free service to customers.

Other customer gripes mentioned in the new guide include the use of portable chip-and-pin terminals to “embarrass guests into paying added gratuities”.

Piped music and the disruption to individual guests caused by weddings and conferences at hotels were also pinpointed as cause for complaint.  

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By Chris Druce

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