Earlier this year, I happened to be in Zuerich and staying at a rather nice hotel. Not top-of-the-line, Ritz or Four Seasons level but some place still charging north of $300 a night. In other words, not a place I would stay at all the time.

Needing to get some work done, I shuffled downstairs and asked about the hotel's wireless connectivity. Yes, there was wireless. Cost: $45 for 24 hours.

Should expensive hotels (or even moderately priced hotels) charge for Internet?

Now, I'm not launching into some annoying, techie talk about how free WiFi is a right. I don't think Internet access is a right. I'd expect to shell out for it at a cheap place on the grounds that one gets what one pays for.

But for places charging $200, $300, $400, $500 a night and up to tack on another $20 or $30 for Internet just makes me feel like my business isn't even appreciated. I almost hear them saying: We're going to squeeze every last penny out of this guy. Worse, they'll think I'm on expenses, which I sometimes am, so they're really thinking I won't care about the principle of the matter because they're sticking it to a faceless corporation.

O.K., let me pull back here.

I tell my friends how annoyed I was that upon graduating from college, my esteemed university charged me $150 for my diploma. My school charged tens of thousands for tuition, I say -- they just couldn't throw in the diploma as a way of saying thanks for my business? I guess this same conceit goes with my problem with pay-to-play Internet at upscale hotels. I mean, they are already overcharging for the room and all that comes with it ($22 burger!). Couldn't they just throw Internet in? Hell, fold it into the cost of the room. Then I'd at least think I was getting something for free.

But reading Joe Brancatelli's latest column at Portfolio.com has at least given me a few things to think about.

Brancatelli tackles just this issue. He says that the cheaper hotels are the ones that will always offer free WiFi, because they see that as their main selling point. In contrast, the luxury brands figure you're staying for other reasons. I hadn't thought of it like that. It still seems a little contrary: you'd think the budget places would not want to be saddled with the cost of Internet without getting money for it, whereas Marriott can afford it.

And I didn't really know how much hotels actually pay for high bandwidth Internet. Brancatelli gives some numbers, and they're not insignificant.

On balance, it still annoys me to be charged for Internet at nice places, because it's the amount these hotels charge. I mean, $5, $10 -- I could live with that. But charging at such a mark up above what I can get at home?

Read Brancatelli's column. What do you think? Hotel WiFi -- fee or free?

Filed under: Hotels and Accommodations, Consumer Activism