Saturday, July 5, 2003

Internet fees in hotels and other public places needs to become as declassé as pay toilets. Even in ski resort hotels where the idea isn't to be on the Net anyway. [...] At least that's the way I feel about it at the moment, when I swelter in the hospitality business equivalent of a pay toilet: a locked "Internet Lounge" (Open 24 Hours. Key Access at Front Desk") with two crummy PCs in an unventilated room the size of a bathroom stall. [Doc Searls] The fees are irritating, poor or absent service is even worse. Some of the hotel high-speed services (free or for pay) make stupid assumptions about how one uses the net, for example rerouting all outgoing SMTP to their servers. My experience suggests that hotels that have high-speed services bought them without figuring out first the needs of their customers. 10:21:54 PM