« Free Wi-Fi is Trend at Small Airports | Main | Doggerel Bites Manual »

March 5, 2004

Anecdotally, Hotels Use Free Access as a Selling Point

By Glenn Fleishman

On a drive this last week from Los Angeles to Seattle, I noticed more hotels advertising free high-speed Internet access than ever before: I drove with my brother-in-law and a border collie from Los Angeles to Seattle over 2 1/2 days, starting on “the 5” (which turns into “I-5” north of the great central valley), cutting over to 101 along the northern coast, and then cutting back to I-5 at Grants Pass, Oregon.

I saw several hundred billboards and the front doors of many hotels and motels as we drove along. Unlike previous long trips I’ve taken in the last couple of years, Internet is now a major bullet point for travelers. Most of the signs that advertised Internet service noted that it was high-speed and free, as well.

Taken in the context of the travelers who pass along the routes we took, I can see that those services are a big necessity. In our case, our one night in a hotel in Ukiah didn’t lead us to broadband since we were traveling with a dog. We looked into one chain, but they only had smoking rooms. We stayed at an inexpensive Super 8 that had free local and toll-free calls. My ISP had a Ukiah number, astoundingly, and thus I paid nothing for access in any case.

Posted by Glennf at March 5, 2004 12:22 PM

Categories: Hotels

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://db.isbn.nu/mt3/mt-tb.pl/1616

Comments