Recognizing the resentment, a few upscale hotels have begun to drop Internet charges — at least for some of their guests.

Image Credit... Andy Rash

Hyatt announced last month that it would waive the charge for in-room Internet access for members of its loyalty program at platinum and diamond levels. In March the luxury Liberty Hotel in Boston did away with the $10.99 fee it had been charging for Internet access and began offering free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.

Some hotels, however, have taken the opposite direction. Thompson Hotels, a small group of boutique hotels that used to boast about free Wi-Fi, started charging $10 per 24-hour period earlier this year. “As rates of all of the hotels have decreased,” said Jennifer Walters, a publicist for the hotel group, “certain services that don’t affect all guests had to be altered — one such item being Wi-Fi. Not all guests use it, so to include it complimentary in the rate no longer makes sense with the consumer wanting the most attractive rates.”

Yet on the whole, more hotels do seem to be moving away from the fees. Over all, 15 percent of hotels charge for Internet service in a guest room, down from 22 percent in 2004, according to a 2008 survey by the American Hotel and Lodging Association. Those that still require payment for the service are overwhelmingly at the high end: 49 percent of luxury or upscale hotels charge for in-room Internet service compared with just 16 percent of economy or budget properties. Only 5 percent of midprice hotels require payment.

Some major chains that charge for Internet service in guest rooms have been offering free Wi-Fi in lobbies, but travelers say it’s not the same.

“Everyone has to line up in the computer room, and the hotel lobby becomes an Internet cafe, which is rather unappealing,” Kevin Leibel, president of a brand strategy company in Chapel Hill, N.C., wrote in an e-mail message from the business center at the Westin Palace in Madrid while on vacation. For in-room Internet, that hotel charges 18 euros for 24 hours (about $24 at $1.33 to the euro) or 12 euros an hour, but users are allowed 30 minutes at a time free in the business center.