Hotel Guests Put Wi-Fi at Top of Amenity List

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Most hotels charge for it, yet I don't know one ONE B&B that charges for it!
 
If you increased room rate for the added ammenity....added value...........then you do charge for it.
I'd add $5-10 to a room for adding wifi......
 
If you increased room rate for the added ammenity....added value...........then you do charge for it.
I'd add $5-10 to a room for adding wifi.......
We have wifi for our own conveinience, so allowing guests to tap into it costs us nothing, especially as we are on an "unlimited" tariff.
I've noticed a steady increase in the number of people travelling with a laptop recently, our guest PC gets very little use these days.
 
If you increased room rate for the added ammenity....added value...........then you do charge for it.
I'd add $5-10 to a room for adding wifi.......
One Day said:
If you increased room rate for the added ammenity....added value...........then you do charge for it.
I'd add $5-10 to a room for adding wifi......
There is a finite number of times you can raise your rates. Altho the article says hotel guests put WiFi at the top of the list, you do have people with absolutely no interest in it who do not want to pay for it in the added room charge and will ask for a reduction once I start rattling off everything the room includes.
So, altho the WiFi is included here because it is essentially 'free' because I need it for myself, I can't tack another $5-$10 on the rate to cover it. Because, when the guest looks at the price, that's all they see. They do not see what they are not getting for free somewhere else. Unless they have a spreadsheet going for vacation.
What ends up happening is not that rates go up, but smaller amenities disappear. No candy dish in the entryway, as an example.
Now, OTOH, adding something the guest can SEE, like a TV or a fireplace or a Jacuzzi (which is also something that truly costs more money to operate), THAT they understand better. You can get 'buy-in' on those items.
 
It is something you add for the guests and do not charge for. It is like so many other things we do as Inns that differs greatly from hotels.
Do they appreciate being able to sit out on our porch on a gorgeous evening like tonight 75 degrees, ferns, rockers, carolina wrens singing, children playing across the street at the park...No, they just take it and use it. They expect it. They have it at home, they need it wherever they go.
 
One Day I would love to see a couple of us give you a bulleted list of all we OFFER at our Inns and see what the room rate would be at the end (allowing you a bit of fun to fill in the blanks, so to speak). We can only charge what people will pay. We dangle the carrot by offering other amenities, if we can.
I boast off street paved parking to entice mostly the motorcyclists...of which there are three to every one car on America's Favorite Drive (Ride). People complain about walking to the front door, all of 75 feet from their vehicle.
...and yet the couple here for two nights parked down the street (we have no parking out front as it is a street driving side only) and they walked up and down this hill each and every time they came or went. Oblivious. Parking is 20 feet behind them on the property (cottage) and they for some reason couldn't grasp it, so we said "let them walk." They also HUNG UP THEIR TOWELS and came barging in, calling our phones in a frenzy to find out why they didn't get FRESH TOWELS! Huh?
In the end they left happy and gave a gratuity and overlooked all of "OUR" deficiencies. haha
Watch a TA review say no parking and never change the towels...UGH
 
As I've made reservations over the years, I can't tell you how many places I've rejected because the the only Internet connection they offered was "dataport" which I think means you have to plug your laptop's modem into a phone line...as if modern laptops even HAVE a phone modem.
Wireless is nice, though a wired high speed connection is OK too. And free is nice. I would never think of charging for an Internet connection. It's an essential. And, as others have mentioned, if your business is going to have high speed Internet anyway, and what B&B business these days wouldn't, there's almost no additional cost to add Wi-Fi for everybody. $35 for a router and you're in business. A tiny amount like that wouldn't call for any increase in room rates. Having the Wi-Fi to offer will easily pay the $35 back many times over!
 
It is something you add for the guests and do not charge for. It is like so many other things we do as Inns that differs greatly from hotels.
Do they appreciate being able to sit out on our porch on a gorgeous evening like tonight 75 degrees, ferns, rockers, carolina wrens singing, children playing across the street at the park...No, they just take it and use it. They expect it. They have it at home, they need it wherever they go..
JB, yes guests appreciate the WiFi!!! I would much rather sit "untethered" anywhere when I'm using my laptop (and I don't need to check biz stuff anymore). :) I just spent hours trying to find 2 B&Bs in CA wine country and I couldn't believe how many did not offer WiFi. Many probably feel that they don't need it.
 
As I've made reservations over the years, I can't tell you how many places I've rejected because the the only Internet connection they offered was "dataport" which I think means you have to plug your laptop's modem into a phone line...as if modern laptops even HAVE a phone modem.
Wireless is nice, though a wired high speed connection is OK too. And free is nice. I would never think of charging for an Internet connection. It's an essential. And, as others have mentioned, if your business is going to have high speed Internet anyway, and what B&B business these days wouldn't, there's almost no additional cost to add Wi-Fi for everybody. $35 for a router and you're in business. A tiny amount like that wouldn't call for any increase in room rates. Having the Wi-Fi to offer will easily pay the $35 back many times over!.
Arks, actually many of us have 2 routers in order to keep our own WiFi network more secure and separate from the one that the guests utilize. Just another little item for you to file away. :)
 
Alright.............I'll give up on the nickel and diming to increase rates....
All I'm sayin is...........there are many ammenities that add "value"......increase the atractability to prospective guests........as business owners we seek avenues to establish value and revenue.......some of these items will come at little cost, others won't.......
it will be you the owner that has to weigh ROI. Should it justify price changes or not....as determined by demographics and real experiences.
Yeah..........I know providing wifi is not all that new today.
 
As I've made reservations over the years, I can't tell you how many places I've rejected because the the only Internet connection they offered was "dataport" which I think means you have to plug your laptop's modem into a phone line...as if modern laptops even HAVE a phone modem.
Wireless is nice, though a wired high speed connection is OK too. And free is nice. I would never think of charging for an Internet connection. It's an essential. And, as others have mentioned, if your business is going to have high speed Internet anyway, and what B&B business these days wouldn't, there's almost no additional cost to add Wi-Fi for everybody. $35 for a router and you're in business. A tiny amount like that wouldn't call for any increase in room rates. Having the Wi-Fi to offer will easily pay the $35 back many times over!.
Arks, actually many of us have 2 routers in order to keep our own WiFi network more secure and separate from the one that the guests utilize. Just another little item for you to file away. :)
.
Samster said:
Arks, actually many of us have 2 routers in order to keep our own WiFi network more secure and separate from the one that the guests utilize. Just another little item for you to file away. :)
Excellent point, and my filed-away item list grows by about 4 things per day, and has been, daily, for all these months. Just amazing how many tidbits I've filed away.
Can't wait to write my own book!
 
Alright.............I'll give up on the nickel and diming to increase rates....
All I'm sayin is...........there are many ammenities that add "value"......increase the atractability to prospective guests........as business owners we seek avenues to establish value and revenue.......some of these items will come at little cost, others won't.......
it will be you the owner that has to weigh ROI. Should it justify price changes or not....as determined by demographics and real experiences.
Yeah..........I know providing wifi is not all that new today..
Sometimes, tho it is not necessary to raise the prices if offering the 'new' amenity brings in higher occupancy. So, let's say I add comfy chairs to a room that presently has only a desk. It's an outlay of around $600 for me to do this. Raise the rates by $5/night because the room now has nice chairs and hope guests can see the reason for that (all other room amenities staying the same)?
Or, show the comfy chairs at the comfy price and have that room book more quickly because now it is more of a retreat than a 'working' room? It might take me a few months for the new, higher price jitters to wear off, whereas, at the old price, I can get the room booked faster (with nice photos of the comfy chairs) and then the other rooms that always booked quickly at the higher prices fill in around the newly decorated room.
And I pay for the chairs in less time. THEN I raise the price!
I think it's hard to charge more for rooms that have things guests expect a room to have anyway. You just get higher occupancy in those rooms. And it should all work out.
 
Yweah, yeah.............yeah..........i get it..................always did.............always will.
Example of what I did.............for more than 25 years I had included a service in the fall as standard in our program........for me the importance of doing this service was more important. When I started doing it we add a small fee..........2007 we began to offer it as an additional service for a fee in the spring.......increased our revenue.
2009..........I removed it from our standard fall service in exchange for keeping the annual rates the same........this also decreased our labor........so now that service is an add on for a fee, both spring and fall.......and it has done well to add to our revenue, while reducing our labor
 
Yweah, yeah.............yeah..........i get it..................always did.............always will.
Example of what I did.............for more than 25 years I had included a service in the fall as standard in our program........for me the importance of doing this service was more important. When I started doing it we add a small fee..........2007 we began to offer it as an additional service for a fee in the spring.......increased our revenue.
2009..........I removed it from our standard fall service in exchange for keeping the annual rates the same........this also decreased our labor........so now that service is an add on for a fee, both spring and fall.......and it has done well to add to our revenue, while reducing our labor.
I'm going to think about this and see how I can make it work for me.
 
We have it. I have a wireless router, and unlimited service for $20/month. So, I don't feel a need to charge guests extra for it. But...my signal is very strong and neighboring boats, mostly transients, often go to the marina office to see whose network it is and how they can get on it. The marina refers them back to me and I end up selling access to my network to neighboring boats for a weekend or so - more than pays for my piddly $20/month service. We even run the webcam 24/7 on it.
 
As I've made reservations over the years, I can't tell you how many places I've rejected because the the only Internet connection they offered was "dataport" which I think means you have to plug your laptop's modem into a phone line...as if modern laptops even HAVE a phone modem.
Wireless is nice, though a wired high speed connection is OK too. And free is nice. I would never think of charging for an Internet connection. It's an essential. And, as others have mentioned, if your business is going to have high speed Internet anyway, and what B&B business these days wouldn't, there's almost no additional cost to add Wi-Fi for everybody. $35 for a router and you're in business. A tiny amount like that wouldn't call for any increase in room rates. Having the Wi-Fi to offer will easily pay the $35 back many times over!.
Arks, actually many of us have 2 routers in order to keep our own WiFi network more secure and separate from the one that the guests utilize. Just another little item for you to file away. :)
.
Samster said:
Arks, actually many of us have 2 routers in order to keep our own WiFi network more secure and separate from the one that the guests utilize. Just another little item for you to file away. :)
Excellent point, and my filed-away item list grows by about 4 things per day, and has been, daily, for all these months. Just amazing how many tidbits I've filed away.
Can't wait to write my own book!
.
Indeed, we have two wi-fi: one with the name of our inn and no key for guests and one called "private" which has a key and the name says it all. I did this after I used a guest'd notebook to access our then shared wi-fi and found without much trouble that I could access the inn's own computers -- even finacial folders. Be warned: windows 7 makes it easy for someone to "join" a "home network" if it is set up casually.
 
Yweah, yeah.............yeah..........i get it..................always did.............always will.
Example of what I did.............for more than 25 years I had included a service in the fall as standard in our program........for me the importance of doing this service was more important. When I started doing it we add a small fee..........2007 we began to offer it as an additional service for a fee in the spring.......increased our revenue.
2009..........I removed it from our standard fall service in exchange for keeping the annual rates the same........this also decreased our labor........so now that service is an add on for a fee, both spring and fall.......and it has done well to add to our revenue, while reducing our labor.
I'm going to think about this and see how I can make it work for me.
.
maybe not wifi....
I know that in all business........there is some tweaking that can / should be done to operate better and be profitable.........even in a down economy.
 
We have it. I have a wireless router, and unlimited service for $20/month. So, I don't feel a need to charge guests extra for it. But...my signal is very strong and neighboring boats, mostly transients, often go to the marina office to see whose network it is and how they can get on it. The marina refers them back to me and I end up selling access to my network to neighboring boats for a weekend or so - more than pays for my piddly $20/month service. We even run the webcam 24/7 on it..
OMG, I wish other people thought the way you do! We have a "weekend getaway place" a few hours from here that (of course) we almost never "get away" to since having the inn. But when we DO get up there we have dial up internet (oh, please) and NO cell service. Okay, some people call that paradise, but I don't. I have to be connected or I'd just rather be at home. I've asked the little mom and pop places why they can't just sell me access to their wireless, but they just don't get it.
 
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