What’s the deal with Hotel WiFi?
So I’ve been on the road now for two weeks… stayed in a bunch of hotels.
I’ve found that about 60% of them have either broken, misconfigured or turned-off DHCP. I have been unable to get IP addresses upon connecting to the hotel’s network.
To make matters worse, the people manning the front desk at the hotel have no idea what a DHCP server is, and have no one to call, other than the manager of the hotel, and chances are, the manager has no idea what’s going on either. I was told the problem was with my computer. No.
Wireless is a cheap and easy for hotels to deploy… especially in a pre-existing property… but for a new property, I say put in wired (100Base-T… Cat5e… like that), and if you want, provide wireless as a convenience.
Wi-Fi is OK as a convenience, particularly in a wide-open space, such as a coffee shop or a park, but for a location with lots of obstructions between the user and the access point, Wi-Fi is sketchy, and should not be the primary means of connection.
Nowadays, people are, more and more, depending on hotels to have reliable access to the Internet. What’s more, it’s important to have a means of escalating technical issues to competent personnel, who will be able to take action and correct problems. The “It works for me” answer is insufficient.
Further, if there is any sort of “Windows-only” stuff going on on these networks, that’s just crap. Kinda like “whites-only”… y’know?
For the rest of this trip, I’m going to make a point of testing the Wi-Fi before I register, rather than after.
If you run a hotel property in New Orleans, Orlando or Washington, DC… I’m on my way. Be ready.