Internet has become a mandatory part of most of our lives. It’s a bit annoying when you get to a hotel and they want you to pay an extra $9.95, $14.95, or sometimes even $19.95 per night for internet! If you’re at a conference for a weekend or week this can get a bit costly. I’m going to show you how get a deal and minimize that cost so you’re not dropping an extra $50 or $100 on internet access for a few days.

Step 1.  Ask the Hotel

Before you make your reservation, look on the hotel’s website or call the hotel and see if there is a cost to their internet. This is a good time to ask a few questions about the net situation at your hotel:

1. Do they have free access in the lobby?
2. Is there a business center?
3. Are there computers available for your use?
4. How about by the pool?
5. Is there a charge in the room?

Depending on your trip length and amount of access you require, free net in the lobby may be enough for you. Or, if there is a business center you may not need to bring your laptop. If you have a choice of what hotel you are going to stay at (i.e. This is not a conference where you must stay at a particular place), this may be a good time to locate a hotel with free internet access. You will notice that the mid priced 3 Star hotels are more likely to have free internet, and the higher priced 4 Star hotels are more likely to charge a fee. Now if you’re like me and enjoy staying at better hotels, continue on to learn how to minimize this cost.

Step 2. Minimize the Cost of the Hotel Internet

If the hotel you are staying at is going to be charging you a daily fee for internet access you can reduce this by becoming a member of a 3rd Party Wifi Subscription Service. These Wifi Subscription Services charge a monthly fee and allow you to access internet at thousands of locations across the country or even the globe (depending on the plan). The idea here is instead of paying a daily fee for internet, you pay for a month from a 3rd Party Subscription Service. The fee for 1 month of service from a 3rd Party Wifi provider, actually turns out be cheaper than paying the hotel day by day.

So I hear you saying “Well this sounds great for someone who travels all the time, but I don’t want to subscribe to a monthly service… I’m only going to be staying in Chicago for 4 nights for a conference.” Don’t worry, you are only paying for 1 month of the subscription then canceling before the 2nd month starts. Now if you do travel a lot, you may want to keep your subscription up. However, the technique shown here is aimed at saving you money for one short stay.

How it Works

1. Before you leave for your trip, see which 3rd Party Service (see below) is partnered with the hotel you are staying at.
2. Signup for the service (again see below)
3. Once you arrive at the hotel open your laptop and go to any website. You will then be redirected to the hotel login page.
4. This page will likely be trying to sell you their overpriced daily internet service. Look for a link on the page that says “Roaming Login”. Here you can login using the service you have subscribed to.
5. After you return from your trip, cancel your service so you don’t end up paying the monthly recurring fee.

3rd Party Wifi Subscription Services

There are currently 3 major service providers available. These are AT&T Wi-Fi, T-Mobile Hot Spot, and Boingo. All 3 services have pretty extensive coverage, however at the time of this writing Boingo is the best deal. They currently offer $9.95 / month for the first 3 months, but there is no contract. So before you leave on your trip, you can just subscribe for the first month, and pay $9.95 which will cover your entire stay vs. paying $14.95 / night. Then you can just cancel the service when you return. You will then have only paid a total of $9.95 instead of $50 to $100 at the hotel. The cool thing is Boingo lets you use the $9.95 promo price over and over. It’s not just for new customers. So each time you go on a trip, you can just turn the service back on for a single month.

In addition to your hotel, the 3rd Party Wifi Subscription Services also include internet access at many airports, restaurants, and coffee shops. So not only will you have internet access at your hotel, you may also have access while grabbing your Starbuck’s or waiting in the airport. You can look over the above websites for a full list of access spots for each provider.

Using this technique, an example 4 night stay that would normally cost $60.00 in daily internet access fees from the hotel will only cost you $9.95. Now that’s smart traveling!

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Filed under: Travel | Social Tags: deals, hotel, internet, Travel