Tim Leffel’s Cheapest Destinations

Expensive WiFi in Europe

Man, I thought we were getting reamed on hotel wi-fi charges by the big hotel chains in the U.S. until I saw this report, London Hotels Most Costly for Wi-Fi Access.

The survey, carried out by Internet company Webaroo, found that top hotels in the capital charge an average of £19.70 for 24-hour access. The Hilton and Ritz for example charge £20, it said.

German and French hotels are often expensive too. The survey found an average charge of £16.99 per day in Berlin and Munich, and 14.23 pounds in Paris.

The hotel Ritz Bayerischer Hof in Munich was the most expensive of those surveyed, charging £25.87 per day.

Keep in mind as you look at those figures that it’s almost 2 pounds to the dollar right now and the pound is almost 50% higher than the euro. What’s worse is that some of them charge a surcharge if you use up too much bandwidth downloading files like, say, a presentation you have to give the next day.
Holy crap–what are these people smoking? Only a person with a generous expense account would put up with that. And even if somebody else is picking up the tab, that’s just plain wrong.

I say this as I sit at my local bar on a Friday afternoon, drinking a happy hour beer and enjoying the free wi-fi access. I’ll have a few beers here and get something to eat and I’ll still spend less than these hotels’ “guests” do on just their wi-fi access. One more reason to stay out of Western Europe unless money is no object.

(Thanks to HotelChatter for tipping us off to this one.)