I travel enough to know that the rates for Wi-Fi in hotels varies a lot. Some are free whereas others are fairly expensive ($20/day or more).
At the Park City Marriott, where I am right now for a conference, wireless is $9.95 for each 24-hour period -- not terrible, but certainly not free. Granted, I can get dial-up speeds via my Treo's GPRS connection, but Wi-Fi's speed advantage really makes a difference (to me, at least).
So what price are you willing to pay for hotel Wi-Fi? Anything?
I consider myself lucky...I have SBC DSL service at home. Until April I can use SBC Freedom link for free. After that I can add Hot Spot access to all Freedom Link hot spots for an extra $1.99/mo on top of my existing $27/mo bill.
So there you go $1.99 a month...
This has more to do with how much I hate how hotels work, but there's a ton of low budget places (i.e., a Best Western I stayed in in Texas on a layover had free WiFi) that offer WiFi for free, whereas you get raked over the coals from other places.... I think $5 or $6 for 24 hours access is fair. $10 is a little excessive, consideirng they're already getting you on the room fee.
I think this is one of those things that in a few years, it'll be an expected part of the room like maid service and cable television.
Wait a minute...there are hotels with *maid service*?!?
I thought all Marriott's were free WiFi.
Apparently not *all* Marriotts, at least not the one in Park City, UT.