erica's joys :)

From Best WiFi Hotels 2006 || HotelChatter

"Kimpton Hotels: Kimpton once again tops the list as the undisputed hotel WiFi kings. The brand improved their now legendary free WiFi service in the last couple of years, by extending their fast, reliable WiFi network to your upstairs room, at many hotels. Yup, at most Kimpton hotels you *can* actually sack out with your computer on the bed wireless and happy. This scenario is oft-advertised by other hotel chains, but hardly ever a reality. Kimpton doesn't count on their lobby WiFi network to reach the top floors of their buildings, instead, at the hotels we visited, Kimpton actually had two separate WiFi networks--one for the lobby and the other for the guest rooms. Both networks are easily accessible by clicking on a standard terms and conditions. Furthermore, during our Kimpton visits, friendly staffers went out of their way to ask us if we were getting a good reliable WiFi signal in both the lobby and our room, and guess what? We were. Kimpton Hotels tend to appeal to business travelers, hip leisure travelers, and globe-trotting bloggers."

Errr...what? I recently had the um...pleasure of staying at The Muse Hotel, which is a Kimpton Hotel. Given the location of the hotel (Times Square) you would assume that the Muse would be one of the better Kimpton Hotels, with all amenities and options available. You would be incorrect, as I was.

When I arrived at the Muse, check in was easy, the bellman was quite friendly, and I was very happy with my room. The only problem I had was the lack of wifi. I asked the bellman about wifi when I arrived at my room. He told me that wifi can ONLY be used in the lobby, quite contrary to what this article states. What was I to use for internet access? A wired internet connection at the desk in the room, for the low low price of $9.95 per night. To make my experience that much better, they provided a nice 3 foot network cable for me to use.

I couldn't believe that for a minute. This $300/night hotel in Times Square does not have wifi access in the rooms? I fire up the laptop and pick up about 5 wifi signals...none of which were for the hotel. Unfortunately, all of them were encrypted. Yay for people being safe about their networks but boo for me not being able to have wifi access.

So I'll say this...hopefully the ranking of the Kimpton Hotels was based on some of their other hotels and by some weird twist of fate, the Muse was excluded. I would advise Kimpton Hotels that if they want to keep that ranking, they should ensure that ALL their hotels live up to the title.