V-Flyer

I'm not sure whether this is brand wide, but the Hilton Islington is now offering free wifi for low volume use. For those who want to "download large files or stream videos" there's a premium service at £7.50 per day. Not quite clear what the tipping point in to "volume" use is...

Are they perhaps controlling it by only offering low bandwidth on the free option, and you have to pay to get a higher speed service?

ratechaser wrote:Are they perhaps controlling it by only offering low bandwidth on the free option, and you have to pay to get a higher speed service?

That is definitely the case. I was just wondering how you would know when you needed to move to the paid option.

Probably when you try and stream video only to find it buffering for 20 minutes at a time!

ratechaser wrote:Probably when you try and stream video only to find it buffering for 20 minutes at a time!

Possibly, but I'm of a generation that still associates watching films away from the cinema with VHS tapes....watching a film on a "device" is unnatural...like TV before 5pm...

Thus far it's done the business for email / browsing so y)

We stayed at a Hilton in Dubai (Jumeriah Beach Residence) the other week. Wifi was openly advertised as being free on the ground & LG [restaurant] floors. Assumed it was chargeable in the rooms....

However, we did log on a couple of times from the room, just to check email / look at a few web pages (i.e. no video streaming) and we were not charged anything on checkout for wifi.

If Hilton are offering a bit of free wifi, well done to them (& about time too). You get half an hour per day free at a Premier Inn - and this free access does support video streaming.

Kraken wrote:We stayed at a Hilton in Dubai (Jumeriah Beach Residence) the other week. Wifi was openly advertised as being free on the ground & LG [restaurant] floors. Assumed it was chargeable in the rooms....

It was advertised on a board at the hotel entrance and in a letter on the desk in the room. The standard HHonors wifi login has a new "connect" option that doesn't require you to put room number / name. I'm off to Manchester next weekend so I'll see if it's rolled out there as well.

pjh wrote:

ratechaser wrote:Probably when you try and stream video only to find it buffering for 20 minutes at a time!

Possibly, but I'm of a generation that still associates watching films away from the cinema with VHS tapes....watching a film on a "device" is unnatural...like TV before 5pm...

Thus far it's done the business for email / browsing so y)

Agreed. I stayed at Gatwick Hilton in Feb and only used the WiFi to check in on line, after walking over to the terminal to find the desk hadn't yet opened and I couldn't face either a half hour wait or going all the way back. I think I used it from the executive lounge.

Dick D

It is still one of my biggest bugbears how the 'premium' brand chain hotels charge stupidly high fees for wifi.

I can get free wifi when I buy a £4 coffee, a £1 burger or even just browsing round some clothes shops, yet when I am spending £100+ a night I am expected to pay another £15 for wifi - seriously?

Charging for Wi-Fi is a bit like charging for warm water in the modern era.

It's a minimum requirement of our corporate travel policy that 'approved' hotels have to throw in free high speed wifi - that includes all the major brands like Hilton, and I'm sure my company isn't alone in negotiating this.

So it's probably a situation where a relative minority of personal travelers pay high prices to subsidise wifi for all the business travelers...

Yes I have to agree. Why do the premium brand hotels charge for wifi?

In tokyo we stayed in a japanese hotel where we had an internet TV with 100mb download speed plus free in-room wifi, where we were able to stream as well.
Then at the Hilton in Osaka about £10 per day charge.

gfonk wrote:Yes I have to agree. Why do the premium brand hotels charge for wifi?

Because they can... or could. Hopefully if this is rolled out across the Hilton brand, then it the start of them not doing so.

I saw a program a few years back that interviewed an owner of an independent hotel in London. He said Wi-Fi is where the hotels make the biggest profit, as it costs them quite literally a few pence per room to provide it, yet they charge anything up to £20 for a 24 hour period!

Which is why I'd rather go without than pay for it!

This is one of the reasons why I've switched all my hotel loyalty where ever possible to IHG/Priority Club now as they offer all Priority Club members (regardless of status) free wifi in all hotels now (well will be all hotels from July 2014 as a few properties in Europe are still in the process of rolling it out)

I have IHG for the same reason.

Hilton offer free wifi to Gold members (I am ) so I can pick & choose where I stay as long as there's one of theses chain hotels at the destination city.

I agree that wifi should be available foc in all hotels these days.

Roxy -popsy

Most hiltons I visit in US - I just cheekily ask for the free wifi code at desk and normally given. I may be a gold member and get free anyhow, but the conference codes they give usually have faster netflix

As a general rule I've personally found playing a bumbling englishman to some American audiences does play well - I've also noted you can get free delta and american baggage and sometimes a cheeky upgrade by cursing without being rude at infernal technology or a similar expression at automated check-in at airports when it invariably goes wrong.

Unless they provide you with a temporary network password to encrypt your connection, Hotel internet is one of the easiest ways to get hacked, credit cards stolen, etc. If you're a frequent business traveler, and you're not using a VPN for definitively secure connection, please do so.