I was contemplating the pleasure of writing a rant for Plymouth’s Chamberlink magazine while sitting in a hotel in Penzance, Cornwall.
Decisions: should I bemoan the ability of people to recognise that the letter aitch does not have an aitch at the start and so is not pronounced haitch; or should I find some element of grammar which is abused on aregular basis?
And then it came to me. Wi-fi in tourist accommodation was the issue.
Now, the hotel I was in, which shall remain nameless (but you know who you are), was very nice. TV, coffee and tea-making facilities, sea view, etc. But they offered, as they described it, “a generous 30 minutes a day of free wi-fi”. After that, you pay.
I cannot understand why hotels do this (and there are many big ones in Plymouth which are this short-sighted, too). You wouldn’t say “You can watch TV free for 30 minutes and then you have to pay” (although having put that idea in their heads, watch this space).
The hotel I was in cost £185 a night for a double room. For that you cannot give me free wi-fi?
There is a small cafe in Tavistock which has free wi-fi. If they can afford it out of the price of a cup of coffee and a sandwich, surely a hotel can offer it in the price of a room?
Of course the tourism industry has always looked for ways to maximise income, and that’s understandable, but you have to look at what you’re doing from the customer’s point of view. Making a phone call from a hotel room used to be an expensive business, with a premium rate being charged for outgoing calls. Now we all have mobiles, so that revenue stream has all but disappeared.
And it will be the same with wi-fi. Those who offer it free will succeed and get repeat business. Those who don’t will have customers who resent being charged and will probably use other means or other places to access the internet. The tourist industry is very competitive and times are tough, I know. But you have to find a competitive edge, and offering free wi-fi is a plus selling point.
Charging for wi-fi is not. Why make it harder to keep ahead of the competition?
Likewise, lots of hotels and guest houses are not dog-friendly. That’s fine if you have a good reason, but remember you are excluding some 30 per cent of the holiday market from choosing you.
By the way, the Tavistock cafe is also dog friendly – well done them.
So that’s the first part of my rant.
The second part is all about— ALERT! Your free reading time has expired. Please pay at Reception to read more.