So, I'm staying at the Portola Plaza in Monterey, which is the hotel that the conference organizers are putting me up in. With any luck, however, I won't be staying here again.
For $9.95/day (payable in advance for the whole stay, presumably so I won't get so annoyed with them that I change my mind about paying for access midstay), I get a 36-inch ethernet cable tethered to the desk. (Forgot to bring a wifi access point with me, alas, so I can't extend my reach.
No wifi in the public areas or the rooms, the clerk told me. But out of habit, I checked for open networks when I got into my room. Found three--"Lower Lobby Front," "Lower Lobby Middle,' and "Lower Lobby Rear." So, of course, I tried getting online with one. Here's what I got:
?!?
$1/minute??? $300/day???? With the caveat that of course that includes absolutely no technical support or guarantees of reliablity?
Feh.
Color me very unimpressed.
It seems like the more expensive the hotel the more expensive the Internet connection. The cheap hotels I've stayed in lately have free wi-fi. The expensive ones are all like where you are at. The last hotel I was at was $9.95 a day for a wired connection but there was free wi-fi at a nearby hotel. The signal happened to reach my room. Go figure. :-)
That's obscene! I thought that some of the airport rates were extortionate but that's uncalled-for. I'd certainly point out this failing to the tech-savvy conference organizers, just so they're aware how poorly suited this hotel is for any conference guests.
Funny, my wife and I stayed in that exact same hotel two weekends ago. I didn't even get that far -- once I saw the ethernet jack, I didn't bother to try wifi. It was vacation, after all. Check out the aquarium if you have time!
Liz, I'm at the Portola and I have free wireless from my room. I'm connected to "Jack's Patio."
I registered for the conference this morning,and found that there will be free wifi in the conference center next door, so that's a help.
Marydee, I can't pick up that signal, alas. :( I'm on the far side of the hotel (I actually have to go outdoors twice to get from the elevators to my room).
Frank, if this were vacation I wouldn't have brought the computer! But I'm technically "working offsite" this week, and online access is important. :/
I will, however, definitely carve out time for the aquarium, which I missed last time I was here (2003).
Liz, this is so outrageous that I have to wonder if it is a non-hotel scam, especially since the clerk said there was no wifi. But since there is no CC info on the form, probably not. This is what EVDO is for.
While those prices are certainly too expensive for a hotel, I can *almost* appreciate those prices if it were on a plane, where jumping online to download your email might be a big timesaver.