I'm looking for a bit of advice on using the internet while I am away on holidays. Up to this I have usually used the local internet cafe or if the hotel had a service in their lobby. I am thinking of renting a property for a few months next winter 2007 in Southern Portugal, west of Faro toward Lagos . The plan is to purchase a laptop and take it away with me. Would anyone know if there is much of a wireless service in southern Portugal?. Any tricks, tips, advice or locations on how I might go about this would be appreciated. In Paris last year I noticed quite a few people using their laptops in a public park. Is there a website where I can find all the hotspot locations.
Using the internet abroad.
- Thread starter Grizzly
- Start date
Thanks for the link. It would appear that McDonalds is the place to go. Just another question. I notice a lot of hotels charge a fee for the use of their wireless service, if you use it in your bedroom. How is this fee calculated and how do they monitor usage?
Free Internet access in hotels is also becoming common e.g. the hotel I stayed in Washington last week. The Irish hostel I'm staying in this weekend also offers free WiFi. The hotels I've stayed where there was a charge, it was usually a flat fee for an hour or 24 hours (or, in one case, until midnight the next day).
Oddly enough around Silicon Valley/SF the cheaper hotels are more likely to offer free internet/wireless access (in rooms and lobby) than the more expensive ones (who often charge US$10 for 24 hours access but might provide it free in the lobby). Rip-off USA, eh!? 
ClubMan said:Oddly enough around Silicon Valley/SF the cheaper hotels are more likely to offer free internet/wireless access (in rooms and lobby) than the more expensive ones (who often charge US$10 for 24 hours access but might provide it free in the lobby). Rip-off USA, eh!?
I read about this recently, a new mid-price hotel chain launched in the US and one of their main selling points was free highspeed internet in all rooms. This clearly appealed to many business travellers and was a very successful customer draw. To counteract, other hotel chains in the same class ($100 per room per night) all launched similar deals.
Because there was not the same competition in the 4/5 star hotels, it did not happen at this level. Maybe there is an element that those who stay at the 4/5 star hotels are less concerned about value for money??
Eitherway you now have the strange situation where within a single hotel group (Marriott, Hilton, etc) you have to pay for internet in the flagship properties while it is free in the budget ones!!
Moral of the story - competition works
Yeah - I presume it's supposedly down to some sort of market segmentation or something like that. Spot on about the Hilton versus, say, Holiday Inn. In fact - last time I was in SF the Holiday Inn (Civic Centre) was absolutely excellent and much better value all round than the Hilton (O'Farrell Street). Cheaper rooms, easier/cheaper parking, "free" wireless internet access, really friendly staff etc.