As hotel rates continue their slow post-recession rise, I hope this is the year that travel agents and guests begin a more aggressive push against properties that continue to nickel-and-dime guests with outrageous in-room Internet fees.
Although many midscale properties have moved to free Internet (Best Western, for one, requires all its franchisees to provide the service for free), upscale and luxury properties seem, if anything, to be raising rates.
For many years I have paid those $12 and $15 daily fees without much thought. But the final straw for me was a recent trip to Cannes, France, where the Carlton InterContinental charged $31 a day to use wireless Internet in the room. Adding insult to injury, the connection was one of the worst I've used in my recent travels.
For the first two days, I flat-out declined on principle to pay, opting instead to work in the lobby bar area, where the wireless was free. I was far from alone; many other guests were doing the same thing, occupying tables that otherwise could have been used by paying bar patrons.
Although hotel analysts, including Bjorn Hanson at New York University's hospitality school and Adam Weissenberg of Deloitte, say they doubt that free Internet will be an industry norm anytime soon, hotel owners and managers might be advised to take note of the growing hostility toward such charges.
During the opening session of last month's International Luxury Travel Market in Cannes, the only thing besides Sol Kerzner's appearance that sparked an enthusiastic round of applause was criticism of Internet and other extraneous fees that hotels, particularly luxury brands, continue to tack on to daily bills.
"Put it in the rate, for God's sake," said Marc Dardenne, CEO of Emaar Hotels & Resorts, which runs the Address and Armani hotels in Dubai. His remark was greeted with roaring applause from the crowd of travel agents and luxury travel executives.
Conference participants, who had taken over the InterContinental and other Cannes hotels, were being charged similarly outrageous rates for in-room Internet.
"I can't believe I can get it for free at Starbucks, but at most luxury hotels in the world I still get charged," Dardenne said.
Indeed, poll after poll has shown that free Internet is a top priority among travelers. But hotel companies and associations say it is hard to get hotel owners to drop the fees, because wireless represents such a cash cow.
"I wish we could say to all of our hotels, 'Don't charge for Internet,' but we don't operate the hotels," said Ted Teng, president and CEO of Leading Hotels of the World.
Like airlines that waive baggage and other fees to elite members of frequent flyer clubs, hotels that still charge for Internet often offer the service for free to members of their reward programs. What I don't get is why hotels would ever want to be compared to -- or even mentioned in the same breath as -- airlines.
Ironically, Hanson says, it is the outrage travelers have expressed over baggage and other ancillary airline fees that has made it easier for hotels to get away with their hodgepodge of charges.
"The airlines provide cover, because their charges are highly visible and in some views even more objectionable," Hanson said.
Still, he said, high-speed Internet access "just seems like something that is as much a necessity as carrying luggage."
Weissenberg said he expects hotels will eventually do away with the fees, but not anytime soon.
"It's got to change at some point," he said. "I think it's just a losing value proposition. When hotels were cutting costs, this is something they could make money on. But I think it is reaching a point where everyone is worried about value, even at full-service and luxury hotels. And to feel you are being nickel-and-dimed is silly."
Hanson said that eliminating Internet fees has been a big part of corporate rate negotiations for 2011.
"It is one of the highest priorities after rate," he said. "But there doesn't seem to be much progress. So the buyers are trying ... but it appears that any progress is limited. The lodging industry is saying, 'We are not back to where we were a few years ago, so we have to seek every form of revenue possible.' So it's not something the brands are ready to give up. They say [that even with the added charges for Internet access], you are still paying less than two years ago."
Still, a recent informal poll conducted by the American Hotel & Lodging Association's daily online news bulletin, SmartBrief, offered a bit of hope. Of hoteliers who responded, 55% said they never charged for WiFi, and 14% recently stopped.
Of course, that means about one in three still do charge. And that's too many.
Email Jeri Clausing at [email protected].