I’ve travelled a lot in the last few years, and one thing I’ve noticed is that there seems to be an inverse relationship between the quality of hotels that you stay at and their Internet service: the more you pay for your hotel room, the worse the Internet service seems to be.

I’ve had great free WiFi at Best Westerns, but struggled to connect to $10/day Internet service at more expensive hotels.

My theory is that free WiFi systems are relatively simple to set up and support. Pay Internet service, on the other hand, require more complex firewall configurations, payment systems, additional support, etc, and often have problems as a result.

If you’re involved in new media, reliable free WiFi is a must, so you may want to check out Hotel Chatter’s Hotel WiFi Chart:

They also have an in-depth look at WiFi service. The chart focuses on the 5 major hotel chains.

This is a great tool for finding hotels that are likely to have decent Internet service.

I’d like to see Internet travel sites include free WiFi as a filter option when booking trips. That would make booking trips easier, and encourage more chains to make free WiFi standard at their hotels.

via Technology Evangelist