Ever wonder why luxury hotels charge their guests so much just for using Wi-Fi? The answer is pretty simple: it's because they know their customers will pay more just to use the service.

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Jeff Beck, a former Marriott executive who teaches at Michigan State's business school, says this has to do with what scale economists call "price sensitivity."
"The type of people that are going to be staying [at a luxury hotel] are typically there on business, which generally means that someone else is paying for it,"
It makes perfect sense once you really think about the kinds of folks who show up at these ritzy hotels. Business travelers can usually just charge it to the company, while folks on holiday who can afford to stay at fancy hotels will probably not feel the pinch.

But according to one long-running survey, this trend might slowly be changing. Managing editor Juliana Shalcross of HotelChatter says that nearly two-thirds of hotels now offer free Wi-Fi, and that number is steadily growing:
"When [guests] go to a hotel and they see that it's charging them for Wi-Fi, they get a little pissed off and I think they make that known," she says.

"They also are increasing their room rates to make up for that. You may not see that, but they are increasing, even a little bit."
[Marketplace]