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Blogging, Customer Loyalty, Executive Management, Free Internet, Free WiFi, hotels, Internet, Management Practices, Millennium Hotel, Minneapolis, Minnesota, New Business World, Public Image, Public Relations, Publicity, Re-Imagine!, Social Media, Social Networking, Tom Peters, Value-added, WiFi
by Paul Kiser
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Paul Kiser
This week I spent a couple of nights in the Millennium Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. Now this is a good hotel and it has everything you would expect for the business traveler. The rooms are clean and reasonably updated. The staff is pleasant. It has a restaurant and a bar (although it struck me that maybe both were afterthoughts in the lobby design.) It has a pool on a fitness room (I didn’t go to hunt for them, but I’m assured that they exist.) It has a television with a selection of stations and optional pay-for-movies.
They have everything you might expect, save one item. Free WiFi/Internet. To access the Internet in the Millennium Hotel in Minneapolis you must add $10 (okay, $9.95) to the daily room rate.
Some business practices reflect old ideas.
This means one of two things. Either they decided to contract out their Internet service and they are getting some kind of kickback, or they have a bean-counter in their organization that has said to management, “Hey, we can boost our room rate by $10 if we charge for the Internet!”
It doesn’t matter why they charge for Internet service because what it says to me is simply, “We would prefer that you go elsewhere for Internet service.” In my case, I go to Starbucks where I can get online for free…and buy my tea with my extra $10…and then, rather than go back to the hotel to eat I find a place near Starbucks. Is that what they want their guests to do? Apparently.
A better place to spend $10/day
Next month I will be going back to Minneapolis and I will find my hotel on Priceline.com. That may land me back in the Millennium Hotel and once more I will go outside the hotel to connect to the world…and spend my money. I wonder if they have a clue? I seriously doubt it.
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Other than the Internet charge, I hope you enjoyed your time in Minneapolis. I travel a lot for work, and have found that higher end hotels tend to charge for Internet access more often than cheaper places. Even within the same network, so Hilton charges while Hampton Inn does not.
I can’t think of a venue in downtown that would offer free access. One thing worth considering is asking if they’ll comp the access for you. That may be easier than switching away from a property that you otherwise like.
Ed:
I had a great time in Minneapolis! I used Light Rail to and from the airport and had no problems. I also went to the Mall of America and was blown away by the place.
On the Internet issue, Reno has the same problem. Big hotel properties charge for access while smaller properties don’t. What I can’t get them to see that free Internet is value added and pay-to-use Internet has a negative impact for business people who rely on access. Unfortunately, in Nevada the major properties could care less about the business client, as they want the gaming client.
This is a issue that has one outcome. Sooner or later one major property is going to realize that even conventions are going away because of Internet fees and they will change their policy and start using free WiFi as a marketing tool. Suddenly they will have an advantage in attracting the business client and sooner or later the other properties will have to face the reality situation.
Thanks for your comments!
Paul
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