Free Internet

What's the deal with these hotels that don't give you free Internet? They piss me off. I can go stay at Bob's Cheapo Motel and get high speed (likely wireless) Internet included for free in my $49/night room. But if I stay some place that's more middle-of-the-road, then they stick me for 10-18 bucks PER DAY for access. 

Gimme a break. No way does it cost them more than $1/day to deliver that service.

I'm staying at hotel in downtown Dallas right now, about a block away from the convention center where GATS is happening. The hotel dings me for 9.95/day for access, and to make matters worse, it's not even easy to connect! Instead of a basic page that says "if you continue, you'll be charged $X to your room", they make me call the front desk and get an access code, then scroll through their stupidly long usage terms.

I'm sure it won't be long before some major hotel chain starts offering high-speed wireless access in the rooms for free, and advertises that as a key feature. Once that happens, everyone else will have to follow suit and provide decent access for free. That will be a good day.

Until then, I have to pay. :-(

It's bad enough that most of these hotels have ripped out their minibars and now just provide an empty fridge (at best, in most cases, you get bottles of water strategically placed throughout the room, with a hefty price tag attached), but now they're grinding us on Internet as well.

At the least the place I'm staying at has a happy hour and provides complimentary drink tickets. That's pretty cool. And if I use all the drink tickets, it might just distract me from the Internet bill!