Wi-Fi: a deal-breaker in holiday booking?

By Steve Keenan

This Sunday will be the busiest day of the year for online bookings, according to Thomson Holidays. And the next day will be the same for flights and packages, says British Airways Holidays.

Price is always paramount. Then school holidays and location. And, increasingly, internet connection.

Flagging up wi-fi availability is becoming big business in holidays. One report from networking provider Brocade last year said that 86% look for a hotel with wi-fi when it comes to making a choice.

And a second 2012 survey from Hotels.com reported that more than one-third of respondents said the availability of wi-fi played a part in the decision-making.

Little surprise, then, to see hotel giant Accor scrapping charges at 500 properties last year, followed by Guoman offering free wi-fi at its five London properties.

The commercial advantage has become so keen that the ability to offer free wi-fi is spreading across the holiday and travel sector. And the opportunity of having customers tweeting and posting about their holidays ‘live’ is another imperative to bite the bullet of cost in installing wi-fi.

Even on water.

Waterways Holidays will this year offer wi-fi aboard 35 narrowboats operating out of two UK bases. The company has been testing 3Mobile and, encouraged by results, will be installing free mi-fi on each of the boats each with 1GB usage for a week.

Mi-fi’s enables connection for up to five devices. There’s nothing like messin’ about on the river, goes the song - particularly if there is good wi-fi inside the cabin of your gently chugging narrowboat.

On land, Parkdean Holiday Parks is another holiday firm to climb onboard the trend, introducing free wi-fi at its 35 parks in the UK.

Which begs the question - when will free wi-fi become standard, rather than a marketing advantage? This year could well see the sea change.