I am currently in Amsterdam, staying in Amsterdam American Hotel – pricey upmarket hotel which calls itself “Amsterdam’s premier modern lifestyle hotel”. What is it with “modern lifestyle” that I have got wrong? Ok, there is flat tv, telephone and bathroom in the hotel room (this probably is enough to satisfy both “modern” and “lifestyle”), but someone forgot that windows don’t have to let wind blow straight into the room through the frames and that using some sealing in windows would not only make the room less cold, but also leave the continuous noise from a huge water fountain in front of the hotel where it belongs – that is, outside my hotel room.
The radiators are hot, but my room keeps very cold. I was planning to ask for another room, but after chatting on breakfast with others staying in the hotel, found out that most of the people had exactly the same problems: wind, cold, and noise. I guess I’ll just bear this room for two more nights. Amsterdam American Hotel – not recommended.
However, the main point of my post isn’t these nuisances, but the horrible cost of wireless internet connection in most of the hotels. Right now I’m writing these words using internet connection which costs 22 EUR per 24 hours – for that money I could buy a decent connection to my home for a whole month. Not only is the connection expensive, it is also unreliable. For the whole morning all I got was this message:
And this isn’t the first time I have these problems with Swisscom’s wireless connections in hotels. For that kind of price you would except quite different level of reliability.
If I would stay in a room facing the street rather than room to the inner yard, there probably would be usable free wireless network somewhere, but now Swisscom is all that I can use. Hotels should understand that charging for wireless network has become almost as ridiculous idea as charging for shower or toilet use. Wireless network isn’t luxury or a special need for a business traveller – it is something you expect to have freely in your hotel room just as you except having electricity and water.
