My experience with hotel wifi is that it can be absolutely fantastic to
abysmal -- and everything in between.
Over the last 5 years or so, my wife and I have had the experience of
staying at various locations of the same extended stay chain and each
location had horrible wifi at peak usage times and superlative wifi when
no one was around.
The translation: very simple: not enough bandwidth to cover high usage
times probably as a result of not willing to pay the cost of system
upgrades.
When will that change; when enough customers walk away with their wallets
anc credit card accounts and stay elsewhere. Other hotel chains didn't
have that problem for us as apparently their network was built with either
higher speeds or higher capacity limits or both.
And, of course, more and more chains are now charging for premium wifi
offering a lower grade for free to the cassual user who requires little or
no internet.
Everything costs something to the hotel operator; and if a few bucks can
be saved on something deemed inconsequential to the typical customer, why
not take the savings which can be reflected in lower per room rates or a
better bottom line or a little of both.
If someone travels a lot, and they need good internet, they, over time,
will figure out whether to stay or not to stay. It's just another perk
such as a fridge in the rm, a microwave, a couch, whatever.
For us, poor wifi might be a killer in our minds especially if we plan to
stay several days; but, on the other hand, if we're traveling from the
midwest to Florida and plan little more than grabbing a dinner and getting
a goood night's sleep, we may not care at all.
And the hotel operators know who their typical guest is and will play to
that.
Kindness has converted more sinners than zeal, eloquence, or learning.
Frederick W Faber, 19th century English hymn writer and theologian
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