What are the most important things to you when it comes to a hotel room?
A comfy bed, clean room, decent food and a location which isn’t on the main road out of town or the main drag for a pub crawl are usually some of the key features.
A warm welcome awaits…
For an increasing number of people, wi-fi access is becoming a must-have. Whether it’s getting on to Skype for a catch-up with those at home or, for the super-diligent, to keep working (or blogging) outside office hours, getting good quality access to the internet is a real must.
Yet hotel groups – even the big posh ones – don’t seem to see it that way.
A common gripe I’ve picked up from Twitter users in my network is that wi-fi is all too often unavailable – and when it is, the rates charged by many hotels make it an uneconomic option.
To me, this is a real no-brainer. When even small, independent coffee shops and eateries (like the excellent Harley’s Tea in Rothbury, Northumberland) offer good quality, free wi-fi for their customers, why the hell can’t these big hotel chains?
Ah, you may say, surely if you book into a four or five-star hotel then you’re certain to get such a service.
Not so.
Whilst most people think they know what they are getting from a four or five-star hotel (and all hotels heavily push such ratings), there is no prescribed set of criteria, at least not in the UK.
The AA has its own ideas on what makes a four or five-star hotel – but take a look at the criteria. Anyone spot the reference to wi-fi or indeed any details on facilities? Nope, me neither. You can have a smartly turned-out uniformed gentleman greet you at the entrance but getting on Twitter? Terribly sorry, sir…
The Essential Travel website has a good go at the subject, but unless you include wi-fi under the rather vague heading of “business facilities” then you’re still in bother.
So where should you go? Isn’t there someone who has tried to make real sense of this rather haphazard though widely used system.
Well, yes. Hotelstars Union is attempting to harmonise the star rating system so it means the same across Europe.
Thankfully, their criteria seems to have been updated for the 21st century since it states that four-star hotels should have “internet access” and an “internet terminal” and that five-star establishments need “internet PC” in the room.
Great. So that’s all sorted then.
Err, not quite.
Observant visitors to the Hotelstars website will have noticed that, like a lot of Europe-wide measures, the UK appears to have secured an opt-out. The scheme – albeit a voluntary one – does not cover Britain.
So what’s left? Surely the Government would like to see some kind of easily understandable standard to aid consumer choice?
Well, no. In fact it looks like they have given up on the star rating system altogether. Instead, we are left to rely on TripAdvisor which of course hasn’t experienced any problems at all in recent times.
Fine. Just one problem. Have you got wi-fi so I can look it up?
Version One 