Diane and I will go up to Auckland in pretty much exactly three weeks to attend the Muse concert up there. We’ve booked the flights a while ago but usually don’t bother booking hotels until closer to the day (wotif.com has excellent offers).
That’s the prelude to the following story. I just went to wotif.com and had a quick look for that particular day (we’re just up there for one night) and browsed our favourite hotels. The Duxton (we’ve stayed there before) has a rate for NZ$169 for that night, which is very reasonable for what it offers. And to be fair, it’s a very nice hotel. So I drilled into the details and what I found there made me so unbelievably angry that I had to blog about it.
This particular rate is called “Mega Business Byte” – and, hmmm, well… seems to be targeted at business travellers? Using the words “Mega” and “Byte” implies some sort of a web 2.0ish, cool, trendy, funky package deal, right? Yeeeeah, right… that’s what I thought.
This package comprises a free newspaper in the morning, one free drink in the bar and free use of pool/gym etc. Sweet? But now – and I couldn’t believe that they actually dare to even advertise that: It also includes “25 mbs of FREE BROADBAND DOWNLOAD”. Wow! I’m impressed – particularly due to the introduction of the little details tool tip text: “TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS”.
Again: Wow!
I don’t know about you guys, but 25 MB might not even cover checking emails once for me. How could I take care of my business with 25 incredible free mbs broadband download. Wow – I could also look at 3-4 YouTube clips, couldn’t I?
Is it just me, or do you guys sometimes have the feeling that some people just don’t get it? In this case, those people are the folks from the Duxton hotels or in particular the Duxton Auckland. Not sure what they’re actually charging if you had to pay for that “TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS”-broadband super-duper package, but I would rather sit in the filthiest internet cafe on Auckland’s Queen Street before I paid any amount of money for a traffic volume limited hotel broadband.
And to make my point – I have no problem with paying the odd 10-25 USD for hotel broadband when I’m on the road, but I expect a line I can use for more than checking emails once or twice a day for that amount of $$$’s.
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