There is one area where the hospitality industry has struggled (or is unwilling) to keep up and be competitive: the provision of internet services.
It is ridiculous in this day and age that some hotels, airlines and cruise ships offer near-extortionate prices for internet access (which, according to the United Nations, is a basic human right, no less).
While many hotels are finally offering it for free (if not in every room, at the very least in their public areas), some still charge tens of dollars a day for it.
If I’m staying somewhere for more than a few days, I will usually buy a local prepaid SIM.
That is not always possible or practical, but quite often you’ll find that there are several companies competing for your business, keeping the prices down, and that the service, supplemented by free wi-fi in cafes and at the increasing number of state-provided public hotspots, will keep you online most of the time.
But there are two places where you are at the mercy of a monopoly provider — that’s at sea and in the air.
Some airlines, including Qantas recently, have decided to provide the service free — with a view, presumably, to allow streaming services on our own devices to replace the need for seat-back screens and entertainment systems.
But on ships, the internet remains expensive. Now, I know it costs more to provide internet access at sea, because you need to use comparatively costly satellite services.
You may say we take holidays to escape the world but the fact is that there is a demonstrated public demand to be connected at all times in all places. Some cruise ship operators have got it down to a reasonable price; others have not.
Related story: One size doesn't fit all
I have recently been able to obtain always-on wi-fi internet on both Costa and Royal Caribbean for a comparatively low fee — about US$11 a day in the latter case, which included everything I wanted to do. I prepurchased it online; it would have been more expensive (about $18 a day if bought onboard).
Norwegian Cruise Lines charges as much as $29.99 a day on most of its ships for full streaming internet, although it is introducing a new plan on its larger ships that offers basic social media (Facebook, Twitter etc.) use for a reasonable $5 a day on a seven-day cruise.
Carnival also has a staged plan starting at $5 a day for social media use up to $25 a day for the full monty. P&O charges between £7.75 and £24.95 per day.
It gets worse with those ships that still charge based on amount of connection time. Cunard charges a not-very-competitive minimum of $45 for 120 minutes of access. Princess also charges on a time basis, from $69 for 120 minutes to $199 for 680 minutes.
The danger with the timed packages is that, if you forget to log off, you can end up with an exorbitant bill that really blows the holiday budget.
Another warning: these prices can be per device, so a family of four could be looking at $100 or more per day just to stay connected. And, really, that’s not good enough.
The advice, as always is to ship around. As with food, drinks and excursions, an expensive but truly all-inclusive package can end up saving you money in the long term.
