While on Vacation I did a complete shutdown (the reason there were not any posts) followed by an excessive amount of travel for business… In that time I saw many differences between what hotels offer the traveler for access.
In Cancun Mexico, you can get a wireless net connection at the Ritz Carlton hotel for a staggering $30 per 24 hours. I really did find this to be a shocking price. You can get almost get month of access for that amount!
When I arrived in SoCal the Doubletree hotel offered a wired broadband connection for FREE. You just have to register on their proxy page and you are good to go.
In Park City Utah at the Canyons resort there is only a standard phone connection and there was actually no desk in my room to work on. The business office could supply a connection on one of there systems at rates of about $5/hour.
The Houston, Vegas and Salt Lake City Airports did not have any wireless access that I could find. In Irvine at John Wayne Airport, you can find a T-Mobile connection (near the Starbucks at the food court) but it was absolutely not allowing connections the day I was there two weeks ago.
It is amazing who and where it is gotten. The traveling and connected person really needs to do a bit for homework in advance in order to be sure of connectivity options. More and more clients have secure networks (as they should) which make it impossible to just plug-in and do your thing. I guess this certainly makes a wireless device like a Blackberry pretty attractive to maintain a connection with the office.
I was actually on vacation with my wife and cousin and his wife 2 years ago traveling from national park to national park. We were booked at some hotel one night and we left when we found out there was no wired or wireless hi speed internet in our rooms. That’s how far we’ve come. It kind of troubles me but at the same time I now carry a Nokia that gives me access to my email and the internet 24/7. Oy vey.
I hear you – I always have some form of connectivity with me. In my pocket and in my bag.