Discount hotel rooms and cheap vacation packages that include hotel rooms can no longer satisfy many guests on price alone. They are also looking for reliable free Wi-Fi access.
The need for fast and dependable Wi-Fi for hotel guests has become the technological equivalent of good housekeeping service. Quality Wi-Fi is unnoticed when it is provided and a major source of guest unhappiness when it is not.
By the end of 2010 the percent of hotel guests using wireless Internet vs. a cable Internet connection increased to 77 percent vs. 55 percent in 2007.
Last year about 13 percent of hotel guests reported problems with either their hotel Internet connection or speed. A Google search using the terms TripAdvisor and Wi-Fi brings back numerous hotel guest complaints regarding slow, spotty, and/or expensive wireless Internet service.
Demand for reliable Internet Service has grown with the increased use of wireless devices. Currently about 80 percent of leisure guests own a laptop and almost a quarter own a tablet computer. Guest migration to tablet computing is changing guest expectations since devices such as iPads cannot connect to the Internet via a cable or phone cord. Only Wi-Fi will provide such devices Internet service.
A recent hotel survey showed that 38 percent of travelers see free Wi-Fi as a must when it comes to hotel amenities and almost a third of those travelers said that free Wi-Fi should be a standard hotel amenity. www.cheapfares.com