Wi Fi

Wi Fi does not mean free Wi Fi, I found out.

We looked up the fact sheet for our hotel in San Francisco so we knew what to expect in the room, like iron, coffee pot, etc. The list did say internet service. And it did say there was Wi Fi in the public areas of the hotel

I discovered that Wi Fi does not mean free.

The cost for wired internet service in our room was sixteen dollars a day... and this after already paying $225 per night. That was just sick... I don't pay sixteen dollars for one month of internet service at home.

The public area Wi Fi was only accessible if you had paid for internet in your room.

Now I was really sick. I had brought my laptop and digital camera for the conference and promised to post all about the conference. But I could not afford $16 per day.

I went to the front desk to ask about the internet access. The very nice gentleman at the desk showed me a brochure and explained the high speed internet in the room. There was a cheaper option for DSL in the room for only $8 per day. He explained that I could order it for just one day at a time, then skip a day if I wanted.

He also told me a secret. If I sat in the lounge behind the bar, at the tables, I could get free Wi Fi from the provider. There was an option to choose "Free Trial Day". The secret was you could choose that. . . every day!

So that's how I got free Wi Fi to blog and check e-mail. It was not convenient to lug my laptop down to the lounge and composed posts, but I did it. I would download the pictures from my camera to the laptop in my room, then go down to the lounge to blog.

Yup. . . I am a cheapskate. After paying $130 per night just for my share of the room, I just could NOT pay them any more money for internet.

And many thanks to Bob at the main desk for that little secret!!