Hotels with Broadband?

dialupInHoboken asks: "I'd like to know if anyone has compiled a list (that they'd like to share) of hotels in metropolitan areas that offer broadband connections, hard-wired or wireless, and how much the service costs per day, etc. I've found a few hotels that offer it, but don't advertise it, or really know that much about what they're offering. A comprehensive list would be something of value to us bandwidth-crazed individuals." There was an Ask Slashdot about this, early last year. Now that "broadband" is a marketable buzzword for businesses, have more hotels caught on?

Wyndham Hotels

[PhaseBurn]

I reciently attended E3 down in the LA area, and stayed at the Wyndam Gardens hotel, in Commerce...

All Wyndham [wyndham.com] hotels offer broadband internet access through Waypoint's network, at $9.95 a day, or for free if you sign up to become a waypoint member (it's free at the hotels)...

They do implore a Linux box that does MAC-based access control, so switching NICs/MAC addresses or using more than one computer will result in a seperate charge per system. Hope this helps...

Telia Homerun

[cyr]

I know you are probably talking about the US, but here [telia.com] is a searchable list of hotels and other places in Sweden that are covered by 802.11b Internet (Telia Homerun).

Waste of time.

[Andy Dodd]

Would you rather:

a) Call 100 hotels to find the 10 with broadband and choose one of those
b) Have a list of broadband-capable hotels and only call those 10 to begin with?

(I know these numbers are off, but you get the idea)

Re:Waste of time.

[Andy Dodd]

I can.

Obviously other people cannot. (Whether due to addiction or business needs)

$10/day = not worth it.

webtv

[smoon]

I recently stayed at both Swissotel in Boston and Sutton Place in Toronto. Both offered a web-tv style internet service for about $10 per day.

Although I'm sure this is probably fine for some people, most slashdot-types would probably get irritated pretty fast with this kind of connection. So if you ask the hotel about what kind of internet access they have, and they say "yes we have high speed internet access in every room", they might mean this webtv crap. They might also mean there is a data port on the phone in the room. woo hoo.

If any hotel-types are reading this: Personally I'd much rather have 802.11 and/or an ethernet jack in the wall.

Arescom

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out arescom's [arescom.com]hospitality network hotels. You can get 1.5 meg connections up and down for 10-20 bucks a day.

STSN

[Ydna]

In parts of the US, there is the STSN service. They provide a hotel locator on their website [stsn.com]. However, it's rather crippled at the moment. If you put in a Zip code, it will only search within that Zip code. Likewise for city and state. So, put in a state and browse the list.

I don't know why people implement useless non-proximity searches for locating geographic features. Such a waste of time.

The cost for service is typically USD 9.95 per day. Some locations will offer discounts for larger blocks of time. Just be sure to go directly to their portal site when you first connect. If you fire up your ssh session first, you will usually be charged for the day and won't get a chance to claim the weekly/monthly rate. Heaven forbid you should have to stay in a hotel that long.

Re:STSN

[sh00z]

I *did* have the misfortune of staying in a Marriot for that long back in March/April, and another important caveat for STSN is that their billing period of 24 hours is noon-to-noon. The clock does not start ticking when you first log in.

Re:STSN

[Ydna]

As am I. I'm in a Marriot Courtyard now and I qualified for the monthly rate and then some. In that length of time, the billing period seems insignificant. Feeling very homesick.

Re:STSN

[Cy Guy]

In parts of the US, there is the STSN service. They provide a hotel locator on their website.

Wayport also has national (and international) maps of participating hotels [wayport.net]

Some other online lists of providers can be found here [magazine.se], here [zyworld.com], and here [geektools.com].

Of course, you want to make sure that if you invest in a wireless card [amazon.com] it will be compatible with the hotels you most frequently stay at.

Re:STSN

[Ydna]

I had to bring my own WAP. :(

But everyone in the adjacent rooms gets online for free! :)

Re:STSN

[Cadre]

An addition: make sure you call the hotel beforehand to verify that they still have their broadband connection. I had a friend who found a hotel on the geektools' list and when he arrived they didn't have it. They got rid of it because it was too expensive and nobody was using it.

Marriott Does

[Red_Winestain]

I recently stayed in the Marriott in Oakland (CA) and San Francisco. Not only do they have broadband, but there is a little bag of "accessories" hanging in the closet. This includes a variety of cables and other useful items to get a laptop hooked up. Downside: Expensive. My memory is not always reliable, but it was something like $10 plus $1 a minute.

Hotels that Claim it but dont have it!

[stevew]

The Embassy suites in Tigard Oregon had it - but doesn't anymore. The provider went under. As far as I know, the adverts still claim the feature though. The staff WILL tell you it isn't there anymore if you ask about it while making the reserveration. (I get to stay there alot for the next few weeks :-(

Indeed

[waldoj]

I don't travel much. I stay in a hotel perhaps as much as 4-6 nights a year. But every single time, I shop around to find a hotel that has broadband in the rooms. Sometimes I pay extra to get a room with broadband, sometimes they say that the whole place does. (I've been doing this since 1996, BTW.) And not once -- not a single time -- have I had Internet access from my room. Big hotel chains, local joints, cheap and expensive...they're all the same. They claim to have Internet access and either a) don't have it, b) it's broken or c) they don't know how it works. b) is the worst. I once had a hotel tell me that for help I had to call some toll-free support number that told me, friendly-like, that I should expect a wait of 180 minutes for support.

Anyhow, as far as I'm concerned, broadband in hotels is a myth. I'm ready to throw in the towel and get an Earthlink account and buy a modem.

-Waldo Jaquith

Crown Plaza

[YoshiR]

I recently stayed at the Metropolitan Crown Plaza in Ikebukuro, Tokyo. My room came with a FREE broadband connection. I'm not sure whether or not the Crown Plaza's in the US offer the same service.....

Re:Crown Plaza

[Wakko Warner]

Well, the one in Philadelphia doesn't.

- A.P.

GeekTels

[hfcs]

From the geektools website, check out the GeekTels [geektools.com] section. They have over 2000 listings for the USA.

Re:GeekTels

[UP_Minstrel]

waveport.net is also a provider, and has on their website a list of sites that they have contracts with.

the W in seattle

[frankmu]

the W in seattle has Web TV, and i think ethernet to the rooms. you have to wear all black though ;) the stay was nice, and the staff was friendly. you were only a few blocks away from the convention center and Pikes Place

Wingate Inns

[rkhalloran]

This chain (mostly Southeastern US, some Midwest) looks like a Courtyard-type chain, but includes "high-speed Internet access" in the room rate. Probably a bulk deal with someone like STSN (mentioned above) and they just lump the $10/day into their rates...

Fairmont Airport in Vancouver

[Anonymous Coward]

I stayed there last year for a couple of nights. Very new and very nice. Each room had a 10BT jack for your laptop with a FREE pipe to the internet.

Tokyo, Sydney, Berlin - Oh My!

[BSDevil]

I know the following all have plug-in broadband:

the Akasaka Prince in Akasaka-Mitsuke, Tokyo

the Intercontinental on Macquarie St. in Sydney (about twelve bucks australian a day)

the Hotel Royal Dorint Am Gendarmarket, in Berlin (they also have non-plugin via an in-room keyboard and the TV)

In addition, there are about fifty proper free Internet terminals scattered around Sydney Kingsford-Smith airport running IE on Windows, and a few non-free ones in the Cairns airport running IE on X.

Saskatoon, SK

[dadragon]

There are three hotels which I know have access:

1) Holiday Inn Express
2) Radisson
3) Travelodge (www.travelodgesaskatoon.com)

The Holiday Inn and Radisson both have ethernet drops in some rooms. The Travelodge will give you a 3Com 802.11B card when you checkin and take it back when you checkout. I think you can also use your own 802.11B card. It also has (for business class rooms) a printer/fax in the room for you to use.

I'm sorry if that sounds like an advert, but I stayed there and it was great.

Hilton Garden Inn

[Alan Shield]

The Hilton Garden Inn chain claim to have free high-speed access in each room. I haven't tried it, but the rooms definitely contain ethernet sockets.

Day's Inn - Nepean, ON, Canada

[Myrcurial]

I'm posting this from a free broadband connection (part of the room fee) in a Day's Inn in Nepean Ontario - it's a Tut Homerun box screwed to the wall that seems to connect to a Coyote Linux box (handling NAT) and running to Storm.ca. If that wasn't enough, there's about 4 802.11b AP's that are available from adjacent businesses :)

Hyatt hotels...

[ZxCv]

I've stayed in a number of Hyatt hotels across the country, most recently the Elliot Grand Hyatt in downtown Seattle. I can't remember a single one that hasn't had internet access via ethernet in the last 3 or 4 years or so. At least at the one in Seattle, it was free but required a daily sign-in to re-authenticate the host for access. A lot of the smaller hotels have Internet access as well, you just have to ask. I stayed at a small Marriot property near LA a couple months back, and even they had it.