Colin Charles Agenda

I was reading Hotel WiFi Should Be a Right, Not a Luxury, by Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch, and I tend to agree with her – Internet connectivity should be provided as part of a hotel package. Its not a right, but its 2010, it should be common courtesy.

I write this, while I myself am staying at an Express by Holiday Inn, in London, where the charge for 512/128kbps wired Internet is GBP7.50 for 24 hours of usage. To me, that is daylight robbery – it is about 1/10th the cost of the room! It is bitterly cold here, but if I was willing to walk about three hundred metres, there’s a bar nearby, with free WiFi access. So, I’m paying a comfort fee.

From a hoteliers point of view, I’m not using their telephone, because I have a mobile phone. I’m probably not buying their pay TV movies, because I can watch stuff on my 15″ MacBook Pro, or since I’m in the UK, and am using their Internet, I could also go to youtube.com/shows and catch something (it buffers a bit at 512kbps down, but that’s another story). If I didn’t want to use my expensive mobile phone (that’s roaming), I could always fire up a VoIP service, or use Skype, and make cheap phone calls via my PC. So from a hoteliers perspective, even giving me a 512/128 link, basically means they can’t slap me with charges for the usage of the phone, and they probably can’t even sell me pay TV.

I’ve stayed at many hotels over the years, and there is one thing I notice: the cheaper the hotel, the chance of getting free Internet access (at least in the lobby) is definitely higher. The more expensive it goes (think InterContinental’s, Westin’s, and the like), there’s usually a charge of about USD$10/day for Internet usage. Usually, if you’ve stayed at a chain long enough, priority members end up getting Internet access for free. Also, if you book into an “Executive” room (i.e. you’re on an expense account and the travel agency books this for you), there tends to be free Internet (alongside, some free fruit).

Sarah is lucky, living in America, since if most of her travel is within the States, you tend to be able to have mobile phone access, so 3G Internet shouldn’t be too far away. Or the Sprint MiFi’s. In fact, that’s exactly what I did when I stayed in Penang recently – the hotel was going to slap me a RM58/day fee for Internet usage (that’s 1/4th the cost of the room by the way), but I carried my 3G dongle, and DiGi gave me 1500kbps transfers, for free :-) (OK, I pay a monthly fee for it, but I use it everywhere I please, in Malaysia, where they have 3G coverage – otherwise I drop down to EDGE).

The same applies in Singapore. Charging folk up to SGD$20 per day of Internet usage, when Wireless@SG is available at most cafes for free, seems ridiculous. This is again, a case of paying a comfort fee. In Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, nowadays you can buy yourself 3G Internet prepaid SIM cards, that charge way less than what the hotel is going to slap you with, so if you have a dongle, go for it (they usually also sell SIM-unlocked dongles).

Why not do what the Royal Orchid in Bangalore does? They offer a basic connection for free, and offer a paid rate if you want a faster speed.

Spot on. Give me access for basic web surfing and email. If I really need to make VoIP calls (I’ve found 7kbps is more than enough for VoIP calls…) with better clarity, I can pony up and pay a fee. Ditto if I want to watch streaming video.

Let 2010 be the year where either data roaming can be capped (in Asia, I have data services capped at RM36/day while roaming), or there is widespread data usage from prepaid SIMs. The telcos can beat the hotels into submission! Or, let 2010 be the year, where we get free Internet piped in our rooms. Ubiquitous connectivity.

When I was in Bangkok, Thailand recently, I received really good information from John Berns, one of the organisers of BarCampBangkok3. He told all out-of-town guests, that you have options for data, with regards to phone SIMs (which you can procure for less than 100 Baht, and topups range from 50, 100 and 300 Baht – cheap!):

If you want to get EDGE/GPRS data service, buy a One-2-Call SIM, it’s easy to set up and you can get 20 hours of EDGE/GPRS for B100. To subscribe, just dial *138 and follow the voice menu.

In Malaysia, prepaid broadband is not simple. Until now, it seems. I quote, from the article Driving mobile broadband to tourists:

Celcom Broadband Prepaid plans are available for RM20 for a week’s worth of unlimited Internet connections while RM6 will buy you 24 hours of unlimited connectivity. The connection speed is up to a maximum of 384 kilobits per second.

RM20 for a week’s worth of unlimited Internet access, that gives you 384kbps. That’s cheap! For a month, that is a meagre RM80, much cheaper than Maxis’s Broadband offering (albeit at a higher speed, but the service quality is horrendous) at RM138.

How is Celcom Broadband? Does it work well? It seems like they’re about the only provider that I have not subscribed to, and this prepaid deal is making me want to check it out. (Their website on the other hand is a complete useless hunk of Flash, that even MacOSX dislikes.)

Point to note: in Thailand, getting a SIM card is easy, you just buy it off the shelf. In Malaysia, they require ID checks, and an address (I’m sure a hotel’s would suffice, and a passport would do), as they need to add it to a centralised database, to track your naughty behaviour ;-)

The last time I was in Singapore, I also noticed something similar from M1: M1 Prepaid Broadband. 3 days of usage, up to 7.2mbps, and topup’s are SGD$18 for 3 days, and SGD$30 for 5 days. The card itself costs SGD$18. Very nifty (there was a promo for a little over a hundred bucks, you could even pick up an unlocked HSDPA modem!). Where else can I get prepaid broadband, on the cheap?

You own a modern phone? You own an iPhone? You definitely want something like this, considering you’ll find the location based services useful, as well as making use of the assisted GPS unit to find your way around. Looks like Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore have their bases covered for the mobile data warrior.

Bangkok is always an interesting place for me. For example, I was at the hotel, and needed to get to Asoke. It was apparently going to take an hour in a taxi, so I was advised to take the Skytrain. 20THB, and 3 stops later, I was at my destination. Win!

Coming back, was of course interesting. I hailed a taxi, and got in, but the first cabbie had no idea how to get to the Intercontinental. So I got into another, and he said the same thing, but had now moved me to another street. I got into yet another taxi, and it seemed like this guy seemed to know, but a little while down the road, he asked for like 500THB. I said no, the meter needed to be used.

He stopped me by the side of the road, to “negotiate”. I said nothing doing, I’d report him otherwise. He started using vulgaraties, so I took a photo of his cab, and told him to fuck off. He wasn’t too pleased, but I know my rights. Found another taxi, and this time, he took me to Siam Paragon, and another hotel completely. I mean, like, what the fuck, this should be easier. I paid him a paltry sum, and ended up getting into yet another taxi, to take me back to the hotel.

How many taxis did I take? Five.

Conclusion? This can be improved. Tremendously. Suddenly, taxis in Kuala Lumpur or Penang, don’t seem half bad.

Coming to the Hyatt Santa Clara, for the MySQL Conference & Expo 2009? Beware, that this year, the in-room Internet just isn’t so peachy.

When you check in, there’s this option of a “Business Plan” that Hyatt sells you – USD$30, for free wired in-room Internet (a $12.95/day value), free breakfast (this includes 15% gratuity, so a $20+ value), a free bottle of water (yes, otherwise its $3.95), and all the local and long distance calls in the US that you’ll need (depending on what you do, YMMV). It seemed like a good deal.

Now, for the benefit of others, which has taken about four days for me to fix. When you’re on this plan, the Hyatt rebates your Internet within an hour or so of you signing up for the deal. This tells their ISP that you’re now not able to get access to anything else, but Port 80 and Port 443 access — yes, SMTP, IMAP, SSH, IRC and all other ports, are blocked.

You need to call 877-22-HYATT (toll free), and tell them your predicament. Their system will not see anything in the bill cycle, and suddenly realise that they can’t even recognise your IP address. The system has no recollection of the MAC address either! So what the nice support guy on the phone can do for you is to enable this for about three days, and then you’ll have to call back again, to ensure things just work.

My case number is: 267 014. Needless to say, all this is about the most unintuitive thing that can happen to someone. Lets hope it all just starts working well… Of course, next week, when the conference starts, there will be Internet at all the lobby/common areas, as well as the conference centre itself, as well as breakfast provided from 7am onwards.

So unless you like breakfast at 6am, or need in-room Internet access, give the Hyatt Business Plan a skip. And now, I can finally go back to reading and replying to the deluge of email that has hit me.

My trek to the USA this time around, was mired with issues.

First up, I was flying a new airline – Cathay Pacific. I had generally flown United or Singapore Airlines to the States, because it just seems to work better — plus they’re Star Alliance, and I like keeping my status there.

So, I now register for their Asia Miles. My travel agent (the venerable AMEX travel) tell me that the flight they booked me, the seats can’t be pre-booked, so I’ll have to wing it at the airport. Nifty. Thankfully, I get an aisle seat.

Now, as soon as I get on the plane from Hong Kong to San Francisco (delayed, might I add, by a few hours — where’s my compensation, oh wait, AMEX booked the flight, I can’t ask my credit card company for money now), I get a tad shocked. I have an aisle seat towards the back of the plane. The seats don’t recline. OK, they do, but they are a new design, and they recline inwards. This means that if you carry any height, you’re screwed. Sure this means no one ever gets towards your laptop screen, as they can’t recline backwards, but is this really what I want on a long haul flight?

OK, the seats have in-flight power. There are nice screens, and the in-flight entertainment is great. All this reminds me of Singapore Airlines (in fact, SIA’s flights to SFO via HKG/ICN still sometimes tend to not have power, unless you fly the new Airbus). Heck, the whiskey they serve on-board is great – Chivas Regal 12yo, and Johnnie Walker Black Label (not the Red Label crap you tend to get) — pity I don’t drink in-flight. But the seats not reclining?

Apparently, I’m not the only one who has encountered this: Cathay Pacific’s New Coach Seats (I’d focus on the comments, if I were you – and yes, I too am 180cm tall, just shy of 6-feet), Economy class seat comfort review (hardest seat, bad for lower back, “seats were the worst”), and the list goes on.

No one seems to want to fly Cathay on a repeated basis, on long haul flights. Don’t believe their marketing hype. SeatGuru doesn’t have much info on the best seat to snag either — because there is no best seat.

So, I have to fly Cathay back again from the US soon. But let it be known that this is the last time I will fly them on a long haul flight. I don’t care if you can shave a couple hundred bucks off, I was useless and not at my optimum for two days since arriving, and I’m sure the productivity lost, outweighs the cost of the savings in the ticket.

A note to my future self…

I really like to have vacations in private spaces. I value my privacy, and enjoy not having to see screaming kids, et al during meals, or when I lounge on the beach. I also like top notch service.

You can get that with the idea of a “private island”. For me, Nikoi Island, off the coast of Bintan, in Indonesia, hits it spot on. It was recommended to me by Adri, and I can’t thank her enough.

Next up, I definitely want to try out Damai, in Bali, also in Indonesia. Sure, its not a private island, but its got luxury villas, and all’s expected to be well. Looks fun, I can even go dolphin watching!

So, while it might not be a private island, it looks fun. More fun than the Eastern & Oriental Penang, might be I’m sure (which I should add, is another top notch hotel – staying in the Penaga Suite, their butler service was excellent, and the whole place, was exquisite).