Hotel internet costs exposed

Five-star hotels across Europe are charging more than £14 a day for internet access – almost as much as a month’s home ISP charge.

London is the most expensive city in Europe to use five-star hotel Wi-Fi, charging guests on average £19.70 for access for 24 hours, followed by Munich (€25.32), closely followed by Paris (€21.20) Rome (€19.60) and Barcelona (€19.60), according to a new survey.

Airports are nearly as expensive as 5 Star hotels, charging on average £12.82 (€19) for 24 hours net use. The most expensive airports across Europe are Paris (€30) Germany (€24.95) and Rome (€24.93).

Internet cafés cost even more than backpacker hostels, costing an average of £1.77 an hour (€2.45). For backpackers, internet surfing in Paris is the most expensive, charging £3.10 (€4.60) for an hour, compared to London, which charges £1.40 an hour (€2.07) and Barcelona, Madrid and Ibiza which are all free.

In many cities finding a way get online is a problem. For example, London has 1928 Wi-Fi hotspots, more than Berlin (813), Munich (376), Barcelona (213), Madrid (176), Ibiza (3) and Rome (109) put together.

The study analysed the cost of the internet across top European travel destinations, including London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Paris, Munich, Berlin, Barcelona, Madrid, Ibiza, Rome and Amsterdam.

It was conducted by offline web technology firm Webaroo, which has produced free software claiming to allow people to search and browse web content on their laptop or handheld when they have no internet connection.

The company’s servers search the internet and analyse web pages, selecting pages with high quality, broad coverage, and small size. Consumers either download Webaroo and selected content onto their laptop or mobile device, or purchase a machine with Webaroo bundled on it. Consumers can search the pages unconnected. Content is updated every time they are connected.

President Brad Husick said: “I’m always amazed at the prices people are asked to pay for wi-fi on holiday or their travels.

“Even with the top hotels you have to be careful to check the fine print as their 24 hour period is from 12pm to 12pm the next day, so you could legitimately end up paying £40 for two days net use because you checked your connection in the morning and at night the same day.

“On top of that, many hotels place a limit on the amount of data you can receive in that period, preventing large downloads or the sending of large presentation files without extraordinary surcharges. On an extended trip you could pay as much for wi-fi access as it would cost to buy a new computer.”

Study Results