What’s the most important part of your hotel room experience: the bed, shower, TV, refrigerator, or broadband? For me, it’s definitely the latter. If I’m connected, every other shortcoming seems to melt away. Of course, I love a comfy bed as much as the next traveling geek, but I need speedy Internet access from the comfort of my own hotel room. I can’t even remember the last time I connected via dial-up - can you?! Ponzi made sure we’re staying at a resort that brings broadband to every room. It seems good enough for my basic needs, although the sign above the router freaked me out a little bit: “128k High Speed Internet Access.” Last I looked, 128k wasn’t very fast. It’s free, too - as well it should be. Hotels should be giving everybody better access without charging them extra - get Comcast to sponsor the deal or something.

Yeah, yeah, yeah - I’m in Maui right now and I’m writing about broadband. It’s not my fault! We’re definitely paying out the nose for this room, but the accommodations are certainly above average. I nearly passed out when I saw what they wanted for a bottle of Evian. Are you ready for this? $6.95. And just in case we were really thirsty, the room comes “pre-bundled” with two bottles of Evian. For me, a hotel room has to be secure, clean, and accessible. When the lights go out, it’s difficult to tell the difference between a 3 star hotel and a 5 star resort. Still, I should enjoy my time here. It’s the first time I’ve ever spent the night on an island. Surrounded completely by water… for $6.95 a bottle. Sorry, I just can’t get over it. If we were in the desert, I might tolerate the gouging. Hey, hotels? Knockitoff.

[tags]travel,traveling,hawaii,maui,hotel,resort[/tags]