Confusion over hotel phone charges

October 2, 2004
At first glance, paying $13 or $14 for a hard-wired Internet laptop connection in a hotel room might seem expensive.

But for some business travelers it might not be a bad deal.

Few things vary as much from hotel to hotel than telephone charges. They range from being absolutely free -- though perhaps already factored into the basic room rate -- to being covered by connection and per-minute fees, even for local calls and those to 800 or similar "toll free" numbers.

Usually the fees are spelled out on a rate card in the room. But it might be a good idea to do the math before deciding to use the telephone at all.

During a recent one-night visit to one of San Francisco's leading hotels, work required a lengthy on-line laptop connection.

Using a local telephone number provided by a worldwide connectivity service (iPass in this case) the session lasted one hour and six minutes.

The work went fine. The shock came the following morning at check-out when - due to per-minute and other hotel fees -- the bill showed a charge of $89.63 for the call.

A shorter 20-minute dial-up connection to the same number just before check-out drew an additional charge of $24.38.

In this case, the wired Ethernet connection in the room, at about $14 for 24 hours of unlimited use, would have been a true bargain.

Another option would have been to use a wireless network card to reach a cellular connection from the laptop. Those rates vary, however, depending on the size of data packages contracted for, and other considerations.