London Hotels Insight publishes an open letter to hoteliers as part of “Free the WiFi!” campaign

PRLog (Press Release) - Nov 11, 2009 -
The London Hotels Insight blog – noted for its unique “inside information” on London hotels - has today launched the second phase of its campaign to persuade hoteliers in London and elsewhere to “set WiFi free” for guests at their hotels.

The first stage of the campaign last week listed the so-called “good guys” – the best London hotels (ranked by TripAdvisor reviews) which provide free WiFi:
http://londonhotelsinsight.com/2009/11/06/the-good-guys-t...

This article received strong viral support across social media, particularly on Twitter where many commented that they felt tired of feeling “ripped off” by high hotel WiFi charges: particularly when already paying a hefty room rate.

So today London Hotels Insight has launched the second phase of its campaign.  This addresses hoteliers directly and presents an in-depth business case for scrapping WiFi charges.

The founder of London Hotel Insight, Rajul Chande, made the following statement:

“While encouraged by the strong support for the campaign shown at the London Hotels Insight Twitter feed (http://www.twitter.com/londonhoteltips) this amounts to nothing unless we convince the hotel industry to change its policy on WiFi.  Hoteliers have to realise they cannot fight the tide which has led to a massive increase in demand for WiFi, while abundant supply has meant that delivery cost is now low.  Our open letter provides 8 compelling business reasons why hotels now have no choice but to provide free WiFi”.

As the London Hotels Insight letter shows – using telephone research and other data – there appears to be a correlation between a hotel’s TripAdvisor ranking and whether it provides free WiFi.  

Even hotels with good online reputations regularly get complaints from guests about WiFi charges, related not just to the amount billed but also the complexity of charging regimes.

Moreover, the London Hotels Insight letter powerfully illustrates how charging for WiFi leaves a hotel vulnerable to a PR disaster, particularly since most leading travel bloggers are fiercely against hotel WiFi charges.  Links have been provided in the article to allow hoteliers to do further research on this issue.

Chande adds: “It’s crystal clear that it makes great business sense for a hotel to absorb the costs of WiFi, even if it feels it has to increase room rates to do this.  By resisting the trend to free WiFi which is going to occur anyway, hotels are putting themselves in a ‘lose-lose’ situation if they are laggards in providing this service”.

The London Hotels Insight campaign for free hotel WiFi will continue in the coming weeks.

You can click through to read the full article and its in-depth “open letter to hoteliers” here:
http://londonhotelsinsight.com/2009/11/11/free-hotel-wifi...