Last week, Jane ranted about all of those new airline fees. What Jane finds so interesting is that as airlines are continually adding fees for everything from food to fuel, many hotels are dropping fees for all sorts of amenities and are actually giving things away for free. You'll find this phenomenon particularly entrenched in the economy and midscale sectors of the hotel industry, where things like free local telephone calls, free copies of USA Today, and free breakfasts are becoming the norm.
Of course, there are free breakfasts and then there are free breakfasts. Take the nice hot breakfast buffet offered by Hawthorn Suites. Hot egg entrées, home fries, and french toast are just a few of the choices on the menu. Beats a stale muffin any day. The hot breakfast at Wingate by Wyndham has selections like eggs and waffles and fresh fruit. These are breakfasts that would cost $15 on up at a restaurant. So, the fact that these hotels are giving them away for free means business travelers don't have to spend the bacon on their morning meal.
Jane is a firm believer in staying at hotels where access to wireless Internet is free, both in public spaces and in the rooms. It's funny how the more expensive the hotel, the more likely it is that you have to pay extra for Internet. Pay $400 a night for your room and then get charged $10 a day for in–room Internet usage. Ouch. Now, some of these high–priced hotels have caved recently by allowing free access in the lobby. But if you want to go on–line in your room, you still have to pay. How can this be, Jane wonders, when the customer at Super 8 is paying $70 a night and yet gets in–room high–speed Internet free? Or when the customer at Microtel Inns is paying $57 a night and gets in–room Internet free (not to mention free local andfree long distance callsthroughout the continental United States?). Other freebies you are likely to find at moderately–priced hotels include free parking; free use of the business center, include free printing and copying; and free shuttles to and from the airport.
Given the economy, more and more business travelers are downsizing from high–end hotels and are discovering moderately–priced properties like Wingate by Wyndham. Once business travelers discover that yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as free breakfast, and free business centers, and free in–room Internet, will they go back to higher–end hotels when times get better? Maybe...well, probably. But Jane bets that when such a time comes, the high–end customer will be demanding that, at the very least, in–room Internet should be free. And it might well be. Of course, the room rate will go up to $410.
If the hotel industry can learn one thing from the last six months of airline industry revenue enhancement schemes, it's that travelers don't like nickel and diming. The hotel that allows the traveler to spend fewer nickel and dimes outside of the cost of the room, while offering more free stuff, is going to be a winner in the customer satisfaction game. Right now, the economy and midscale brands are in the lead.
