BTW, I’m posting from a Hampton Inn, which is offering complementary wi-fi access (with a D-Link router no less!). Note that hotels that offer wireless access for free rather than poor quality pay services in their business centers (or even better in their rooms) are hotels I will go back to – and those that don’t are one’s I probably won’t be frequenting again – and I know for a fact I’m not the only one…
And for those of you who think that T-Mobile Hotspot is a sound choice for your business – think again… what they’re charging is ridiculous.
The hotel I work at is really struggling with trying to get Wi-Fi to work. The same walls that keep noise down are nearly opaque to Wi-Fi frequencies, and all the coffeemakers, microwaves, and refrigerators cast out killer interference. To get good signal coverage they’d have to put a WAP in each room.
The stuff that keeps the hotel fire safe, like fireproof metal-core doors, are also impossible to get a Wi-Fi signal through.
Maybe the reason that some hotels have to charge for access is because of the astronomical outlay in equipment that access represents. It’s not like you can plop a WAP in the back office and expect to get good signal coverage to 70+ rooms, or whatever.
Hrm, I wonder, now… any engineers in the house? Would my hotel get better bang for their buck if they put the WAP’s outside the hotel and tried to signal in through the windows?
Personally, as long as they have it in the business center, I’m happy. I could get some coverage in the lobby as well, but it took quite a bit of moving around to keep a strong signal.
If they had pay-access in room and free business center access, that would be a deal I could live with.
It’s the ones who rape you now matter what (*cough* Wyndham *cough*) that bother me…
And you can get wireless antennas for around $60 that might be able to get a signal through to individual rooms – it might be worth it to see if something like that would work…