I finally understand the attraction of Wifi

I know I'm very late to the wi-fi party but I had neither the need nor the opportunity to test the facility on my Dell Inspiron 510m until last night, when I had a business meeting at the Clarion Hotel in Limerick - Ireland's tallest hotel.

You'd be hard pressed to find a mention of wireless broadband on the Clarion's website so I didn't know what to expect as I booted the Dell. But sure enough it wasn't long sniffing out the free and open wifi signal, which made our meeting in the lobby so much more productive. I have to admit to having been blase about wifi previously - GPRS and 3G seemed plenty good to me - but now I really grok it. Free broadband access in the comfort of a plush lobby is very conducive to productive business meetings.

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Bernie Goldbach: What's wrong with free internet access?

Comments

[Brian O'Neill]

Its good when its free. Unfortunatly a lot of places charge you, and its a pain in the hole.

I tried it recently in star bucks in belfast, and it was a nightmare to setup, we had to pay something like 20p a minute.

I think free broadband is a real selling point, so hopefully more places will offer a free service.

[James Corbett]

Yes, its definitely a selling point Brian. I've had meetings in all sorts of locations recently but the next time I'm having one in Limerick I know for sure it will be at the Clarion. While one might argue that the purchase of a few cups of coffee won't lift their share price I'd have to say that its such a positive in the overall marketing message (if they only did market it properly!) that it would be stupid not to offer it.

As you can see from their website it really is a lovely hotel in a beautiful waterside location, very close to city center. So who knows - if anyone googling for a hotel in Limerick arrives at this blog then, the free wifi message might make their mind up to proceed with a booking.

And could they kindly leave a comment if they do :)

[walter]

Wait until you've got wireless at home. It's a hard thing to give up.

http://xanadb.com/archive/linux/20050322

Walter

[James Corbett]

Yes, I'm tempted to change my eircom router now Walter. Unfortunately I signed up for their broadband just before they announced the free wifi option :(

[Imeallach]

Thanks for the tip James. I'll certainly be visiting the Clarion more often.

If you're in Athlone, the Prince of Wales hotel has free wifi in the lobby. I stayed at the Radisson in Athlone recently for two days and the wifi was down the whole time. I'll know where to go next time.

Hotels need to realise this is more than a selling point: it's a deal maker/breaker for some!

[James Corbett]

Thanks Imeallach, I wonder if we should try to compile a list of these useful hotspots into a Wiki?