Earlier this week MacCentral brought readers news about Hilton Hotels Corp.’s plans to outfit public areas in its properties with Wi-Fi wireless Internet access. At the time of our original report, details were unavailable about the fee structure planned for this service. Now Hilton has provided MacCentral with more information.
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Hilton is on the fast track to install AirPort-compatible Wi-Fi access in public areas within 50 Hilton-brand hotels in North America within the next 30 days. It’s the first stage in the company’s plan to add the capability to 230 Hilton properties across the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
The service will augment the wired high-speed Internet access already offered in the guest rooms of many of these hotels — enabling hotel guests to surf the Internet, send e-mail and perform other online tasks in hotel lobbies, conference rooms and other common areas.
A spokesperson for Hilton Hotels Corp. confirmed that the Wi-Fi access will be pay to play. She noted that Hilton plans to charge $1.99 for the first 10 minutes, then 25 cents per minute thereafter, with a cap of $9.99 charged from noon to noon of the following day.
This is new territory for Hilton, however, which may lead to some experimentation. “… we will most likely test different price points over time in order to settle on price that guests will accept,” said the spokesperson.