Internet service is getting cheaper, not more expensive, and hotels already are shelling out for multiple T1 lines for their own internal use. The cost of providing the service to guests is marginal, and hotels are pocketing the sizable difference between that and what they charge per night for the privilege of a high-speed connection.

Travel writer Joe Brancatelli, in his Seat 2B column on Portfolio.com, points out that a decade ago luxury hotels charged a dollar or so for every phone call from the room, while cheaper joints tended to include the cost of local calls in the room rate. That question is now moot, since no business traveler in her right mind uses the landline phone in the room anymore. “But the deep, philosophical disagreements are back — over the price hotels may or may not charge to access high-speed Internet and Wi-Fi service.”

Down-market, “select-service” properties like Courtyard by Marriott, Hampton Inn, and Four Points by Sheraton tend to offer free and usually reliable high-speed Web access as part of the expected amenities, while five-star joints tend to tack on ridiculous fees for plugging into the network. Brancatelli quotes a couple of hoteliers, speaking anonymously, defending the practice — franchisees “live and die with the bottom line,” one hotel chain executive says, “and they’re worried about the rising cost of providing Internet service.”

That’s nonsense. Internet service is getting cheaper, not more expensive, and hotels already are shelling out for multiple T1 lines for their own internal use. The cost of providing the service to guests is marginal, and hotels are pocketing the sizable difference between that and what they charge per night for the privilege of a high-speed connection.

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