Should I charge for Broadband Internet access?

There are currently widely contrasting views throughout the hotel industry as to whether or not to charge guests for Broadband Internet access. One thing all hoteliers are now certain about though is that their business guests increasingly insist on this service being available for the duration of their stay, especially in the bedroom or conference scenario. This is now a far more important service to them than the bedroom telephone.

Only you know whether it's right for your hotel to charge for access. There are arguments behind each model, however currently all our hotels are charging their guests a fee to connect to the High Speed Internet connection. Charges are typically 10% of the single occupancy room rate. Our research of the UK hotel market has shown that currently, in 2005, guests acknowledge Broadband as a premium service and are willing to pay for access - it's a business expense.

We do appeciate however, that there is almost certainly a finite window for charging for Broadband Internet access. It looks as though access will become a "free" or "included in the room rate" service for the majority of hotels by 2007. Our Guest Service Gateway has a flexible billing platform so you can charge for access or offer it for free. The choice is yours.

When you've decided that you need to install Broadband throughout your public areas, conference rooms, and bedrooms, why not have the service installed now and recoup the maximum return on your investment from direct revenue generated from our system. We even have a flexible leasing plan available if you don't want to allocate capital upfront, meaning our solutions can cost as little as 11p per room per day. Some of our hotels are looking at a 1 year payback period - so you could make the installation pay for itself.