Justine Larbalestier

reading, writing, eating, drinking, sport

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Scalzi was right

Scalzi’s law that the cheaper the hotel the better the wifi is 100% correct. I write this on my iPhone in a four star that has no wifi in the rooms. Night before last in the crappy motel we had the best wifi of the trip and it was free. What gives?

Many tales of the tour to come. Tonight I am in Dayton. Hope to see a few of you there. Check appearances for details.

Posted by Justine at 9:25, 8 October 2008 under Book tour, Cons & Other Gatherings, How To Ditch Your Fairy, New York City/USA | 6 Comments »

Comments

  1. cathy Says:

    My understanding is that higher end hotels assume they are catering to business travelers on expense accounts, and since everything gets paid for by their companies, putting as many charges on as possible to squeeze as much profit from the guests as possible works as a business model. People on expense accounts don’t think about the costs as much, and big business is conscious of its image and therefore doesn’t put its employees up at Motel 6. On the other hand, a personal traveler is looking to get as much bang for her buck as possible. Free wifi is the new free cable (which I recall most motels advertising when I was a kid).

    October 8th, 2008 at 11:45 am

  2. the dragonfly Says:

    Go figure.

    October 8th, 2008 at 3:36 pm

  3. Angela Says:

    Yes I’ve had the same exact experience….get stuck at a motel with three locks on the door and someone sleeping under your window and you will have free internet.
    When your company finally finds you a hotel room (What? Your plane landed? We thought you were coming next week) and get bumped to a VP suite for your trouble, you might get fruit, you will have $10 bottles of .5 litres of wine…but internet? It’s like they never heard of it (or they have some crap you have to try to type through the TV)

    Well…at least you have internet with ur cell phone!

    October 8th, 2008 at 4:58 pm

  4. Steve Buchheit Says:

    Oh yes. Even high-end hotels that have “free wifi” in the lobby, that wifi usually sucks, or requires reauthorization every few hours.

    October 8th, 2008 at 8:46 pm

  5. joann Says:

    Further, high-end hotels made such a large-scale investment in business centers (where you go to find the computers, the fax, the copier) that they probably felt blindsided by the whole wifi thing, and that they haven’t exactly gotten their investment back.

    October 9th, 2008 at 11:33 am

  6. Haddy-la Says:

    my entry for the contest is 243 words do i need to make it smaller or will mine still be read if i turn it in like that

    October 9th, 2008 at 2:40 pm

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