Hotel Rip Offs

Why is it that I can stay in an interstate Holiday Inn Express for half the price of what it costs for a downtown Hyatt, but the Holiday Inn gives me free Internet. The Doubletree I stayed at last month gave me free internet and printing (from the room no less! picked up at the front desk.)

But the Hyatt downtown St. Louis charges me $9.95 a day for Internet access. If I want to print something, it's in the 24-hour business center - minimum computer charge of $13.95, plus $1.69 a minute, and 80 cents a page.

Do these guys realize that they have seriously damaged my "customer experience?" Others aren't happy about this either. It's kind of like those old rip-off hotel long distance phone charge back before everyone had cell phones.

Now I have a story about how crappily Hyatt treats their business travellers. My advice to other travellers - don't stay downtown. I've got a reservation at a Hyatt for another trip next week. I'm so angry I may cancel an switch hotels. At the least I've got another poor customer satisfaction story to tell. Jason says that Hilton is just as bad.

I think I'll be staying at Drury from now on.... Who wouldn't prefer a free happy hour to a $10 internet fee?

So Hyatt, is that worth your lousy cheapskate computer charges?

UPDATE: LB's Rambles is making the same point, that bad customer relations negates advertising. He's talking about airlines, but the lesson for anyone providing customer service should be universal. Nowadays, when a business gets so big that it forgets that its customers have a choice, and treats them accordingly, the web allows us to remind them quickly.

UPDATE II: See above

Update III: Okay, Hyatt doesn't suck