I really do love getting the chance to talk to people from outside the travel industry about what we do, and the unique challenges we face as marketers. Most conversations start the same way, “Travel must be using social media really well, right?”

I don’t blame people for assuming that this would be the case. Mobile devices are ever prevalent and people love to talk about travel, even while they’re still on the road. It’d be silly if travel wasn’t leading the way, right?

Unfortunately for the industry, travellers and the brands they engage with while on the road are out of our control. The average users Internet connection is held to ransom by the omnipotent gatekeeper of wifi- the hotel.

Now obviously some hotels have free wifi – I have no issues with you.  I take issue with hotels that have:

• No internet
• Wired internet only
• Charge for internet

It’s pretty bad when New York City parks are offering more in the free internet department than some hotels.

Although it sounds selfish to be demanding services, it’s not just for the customers benefit. In fact, free wifi benefits the hotel, customers and other brands, and here’s how.

When I get to a hotel, I check in on Foursquare and Facebook places before even checking in officially at the front desk.

I check in, get to my room. If there’s a good view or something extra impressive, I’ll take a picture and tweet about it. Here is one I actually took in Thailand:

Over the course of a normal 3-5 night booking, thousands of users are exposed to the hotels brand. Although this is obviously a positive, it does mean that hotels can open themselves to the opposite.

Before even speaking to the staff, a customer could have been exposed to messages like these:

Don’t expect people not to talk about the negatives. If a room is dirty or the service is subpar, it will be shared.

Regardless, the benefits of giving your customers free wifi will out pace the financial return of charging for the service.

And then there are the rest of us. Toiling away in our offices, spending all of our time, effort and money trying to engage our users while they’re on holiday. Realistically, some of them might as well be lost at sea, we’d have about as much chance of making an impact. Or lost in a Manhatton park.

So, hotels that don’t offer free wifi, it’s okay if you can’t put yourselves in our shoes. That’s fine. But at least do it for your customers happiness and your own brand. Please?!

For another rant on the lack of wifi in hotels, check out this post from Stuart McDonald (@TravelFish)

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