Stayed at a hotel recently? Paid for internet access? Yep, it’s a pretty rough world out there. In fact, having recently attended a conference in New Zealand, we had to shell out $30 a day for wifi at some locations!
Complaints about hotel wifi services are as common as death and taxes, so you’d think the hotel industry would be sensitive to chatter about how internet services are deployed, and exercise care over which vendors they choose to provide internet access.
Marriott may not be following such principles, as a scathing New York Times story recently revealed how the hotel’s wifi service at its Midtown Manhattan location was effectively pushing ads onto every website a customer accessed. The lid was blown off by a web engineer who posted the technical details on his own blog. The culprit, it seems, is a wireless hardware component that’s specifically marketed for its “Web experience manipulation”…
In matters of PR and perception, sometimes the unlikeliest of scenarios can catch up with a client – in this case, a supply-chain mini nightmare eventually bit Marriott with a dose of bad publicity. The lesson here is to evaluate and choose your vendors carefully, knowing that their own bad acts may influence your own customers’ perceptions of your business.
