In 2014, most of the western world regard being able to connect to Wi-Fi as a basic essential. Take a walk along any high street in the UK and you’ll soon find coffee shops and restaurants offering a free Wi-Fi connection. Register with The Cloud Wi-Fi and you’ll have free access to hotspots across the UK. In New York, 7,300 inoperable phone booths are being revived and transformed in to free Wi-Fi networks for the public. For those stuck in their ways, who continue to charge for something that's free in most places, when is the penny finally going to drop?
There can be nothing more annoying than trying to access your emails and being greeted with a registration process and fee. Perhaps what’s even more irritating is only having a free Wi-Fi connection for an introductory period of 15 minutes. Then there’s that one connection that’s so poor it struggles to download documents or load a particular webpage. Most of the serviced apartments on our website include wireless internet in the rates and, unlike hotels, there’s a strong connection in the apartments and not just in the lobby.
As we’ve mentioned before in our blog on hotels and hidden costs, daily wireless internet rates are inflated and hotels make huge profits from charging for usage. Most business travellers expect to see internet as part of the furniture, and it doesn’t matter if it’s Wi-Fi or not. So that’s why over 70% of serviced apartments make it simple by including it within the rate. Being able to access Wi-Fi in public places is a luxury that most major cities are afforded, but business travellers work in their own surroundings a lot of the time, away from these public spaces. Serviced apartment operators understand that Wi-Fi in their properties isn’t a privilege, it’s a necessity.
