uptowngirl
uptowngirl

Hotels that offer complimentary wireless internet in NYC

This list may not be helpful for those of us who live in NYC and have DSL/Cable internet access @home. However the city is visited by hordes of tourists and business travelers each year and knowing which hotels in the city offer complimentary internet access may help them make their choices in an increasingly interconnected world where netbooks, laptops and now iPads are de rigueur for most travelers.

1. Hotel Gansevoort
18 Ninth Avenue (at 13th Street)
New York, NY 10014
This darling of the Meatpacking district offers free wireless internet all through out its premises.
2. Hotel San Carlos
150 East 50th Street
New York, NY 10022

This elegant hotel located in Midtown offers free Wi-Fi in every guest room.
3. Hotel Metro
45 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001,

This Murray Hill boutique hotel offers complimentary wi-fi in all its guest rooms along with complimentary use of its business center.
4. Greenwich Hotel
377 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10013

This decidedly old world hotel is filled with new world amenities including complimentary wireless internet in every guest room.
5. Hotel Giraffe
365 Park Avenue South
New York, NY 10016,

This oddly named hotel not only offers complimentary wireless internet to its patrons it also offers them complimentary passes to an NYSC located close by.
6. The Andaz Hotel
75 Wall Street
New York, NY 10005

This boutique hotel chain of the Hyatt hotel group offers guests not only free wireless internet but complimentary phone calls as well.
7. The Andaz Hotel
485 5th Avenue at 41st Street
New York, New York
10017
The opinions expressed here are those of the individual and not those of StreetAdvisor.
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43 Comments

hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
Thanks for the list Uptowngirl. It is good to know there are hotels in the city that provide complimentary wireless Internet services. At least when friends or family decide to come and visit, and they refuse to stay with their friends or family, at least they will have a place that includes wireless so they can check their email and stuff.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@uptowngirl I would be surprised if a hotel didn't offer free internet connections, though.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
I can't stand it when hotels - particularly "nice" hotels, charge for internet usage. It seems that lower-budget hotels offer it for free, while high-end ones don't. What gives? Is it just that business clients tend to take the high-end hotels, "need" internet, and are therefore willing to pay through the nose for it?
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@ajadeidealist It's probably just the take-em-for-all their worth mentality, a philosophy which is the cornerstone of this country! Yeah, there's no reason internet isn't free in decent hotels except that they bank on the probability that someone who can afford a decent hotel isn't going to grumble about a few dollars more.

If I pay more than $250 for a room, though, and they want to start charging me for internet, I woudl seriously shove my laptop down someone's throat.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
It does seem in poor taste to charge people for wifi at a nice hotel, especially when you can get it for free at just about any coffee shop - and many bars! - in town.
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DBlack
DBlack 2yrs+
I've never really needed a hotel in NYC but I'm surprised that they don't all offer free internet? What's up with that?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone I began to look into this after a friend asked me for recommendations of hotels in NYC and his major requirement was that they offer free Wi- Fi. Sadly hotels all over the world tend to think that they can continue to charge hefty charges for internet access and use it as a revenue stream and funnily its the more expensive hotels that seem to follow this philosophy. I have recently stayed at hotels like the Conrad, the Four Seasons and Novotel. All decent, upmarket hotel properties , the Conrad charged me $15 a day for wired access while WiFi was included in the room rate at the Four Seasons and the Novotel.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist my friend was coming to NYC on business and even he was unwilling to pay through his nose for internet access.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Everybody: It is the mentality of the rich. They know they have a super expensive place to stay, so they know only the people who have gobs of money will stay there. Therefore, their philosophy is simple. Take advantage of the rich and sock them for all they can. After all, these kinds of hotels and motels cannot get rich from poor people, so they purposely keep their rates high to only attract the rich. And when they do, they sock it to them. It is a scam that many highly prestigious companies perform against the rich.

This is why if you talk to a rich person, you will hear him complain about always being the fall guy for some scam to take his money. One rich client told me he got rich by not spending his money. He told me he feared traveling because when business establishments find he has money, they take advantage of him by charging more for rooms and other conveniences.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone I am just leaving to go on vacation and have booked into a Conrad hotel..they are charging me over $200 a night and no free wi-fi.! Checked the Hilton Hotels site and it mentions only their Diamond members are entitled to free Wi-Fi! preposterous!
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: I hear you. Your situation is a perfect example of what I was talking about.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl $15 a day is really ridiculous for wifi. I wonder how much these hotels actually pay for their internet service provisions...
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK: A whole lot less than you think. They just want to take advantage of the rich, that's all.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK I found out that they offer free Wi-fi in their pool areas.. and its pretty perfect as now I am poolside in a little cabana with my laptop and am surfing away. When it gets too hot I just dive into the pool .. its quite perfect :)
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DBlack
DBlack 2yrs+
@uptowngirl Lucky, lucky you. I feel like my brain is baking inside my head in good old NYC.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@hhusted Actually, I assumed they got some kind of deal. My point was that they are probably making a bundle charging people $15 a day for what is surely really slow internet service.

@uptowngirl @DBlack Oh man! I was literally just browsing Expedia for package vacations. I want to head to the Caribbean before the summer is over, and get some real use out of this sun.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK: You would hope for $15 a day that people would get a package deal.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
@Uraniumfish - The Marriott Tbilisi, where my mother's company put her up when she first moved, costs over $250 a night (maybe its 250 euro - not sure) AND charges for internet. Luckily they didn't make her pay as she was staying a while...
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone its the big chains who are stubbornly hanging on to their policy of charging for internet,the smaller ,boutique hotels often offer wireless internet for free.. that should be the norm me thinks though when we stayed at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong for six weeks free wi-fi was included in the deal. thank god!
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@hhusted Seriously.

@uptowngirl I think maybe it depends on the city. For example, I stayed in a really really awesome Marriott suite in Orlando last summer and the internet was free, but ajadedidealist had to pay for it in Tbilisi. Maybe it just depends on what kind of internet is available in the area?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK I don't think so I think it depends on the individual hotel's policy.. I recently stayed at the Conrad in Bali. Internet was free at the Conrad Suites but you had to pay for it in a standard room in the hotel.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@uptowngirl Yeah, that too. But don't you think it matters what kind of internet is available in the area and what kind of deal the hotel can get on said internet? I'm sure what they pay for internet has something to do with whether and how much they charge for people to use it. It can't be cheap to outfit a high rise hotel with a wifi network, you know?
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Generally in Asia Internet access in countries like Singapore, Hong Kong, India is quite cheap.. you have a competitive market with many ISPs which always helps to bring the price down so generally a home /business broadband connection is quite reasonable and I dont think its that expensive to set up a Wi-Fi network in a hotel. In spite of this I was charged US $15 a day for internet access at the Conrad Hong Kong earlier this year...
Check out the The Hotel Chatter Newsletter for the confusing world of Hotel Wi-Fi
http://www.hotelchatter.com/special/Worst-WiFi-Hotels-2010
http://www.hotelchatter.com/special/International-WiFi-Hotels-2010
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@Uptowngirl: We live in a global economy, right. Or so I heard. If foreign countries offer broadband so cheaply, wouldn't companies in the USA realize this and lower their fees? I may be thinking incorrectly here. But I wanted to throw it out there to see what everyone else thinks about it.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@hhusted Hotels in the US aren't exactly in competition with hotels outside of the States, if you know what I mean.

@uptowngirl UGH! I don't know what else there is to say on the subject.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
My flatmate just let me borrow her USB wireless modem thingie, as the internet is down and she's out of town, and it's AMAZING! Wireless ANYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY (currently, Denmark - just for the month though) all for a flat monthly fee! (I hope! She didn't say it was paybytheminute, so I'm assuming...her, hoping...) But yes! NO more picking cafes based on wifi access! No more looking for hotspots! It's AMAZING!
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@ajadeidealist Um, you might want to double check that you don't now owe thousands of euros. I had something like this in Germany and it was unbelievably expensive. And it wasn't in the company's interest to warn me about it for that first month of use.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@ajadedidealist dongles are the way to go.. use them on my trips to London at my ma -in-law's home where there is no broadband, I usually pay 10 quid for the whole month on a 3 dongle so I presume you may have a similar deal going though I know that my other Vodafone dongle requires a 15 quid to-up which can be used for more than six months of course depending on your usage.
I do wish dongles become more prevalent in the US especially in NYC where tourists abound but not many Wi-Fi free hotels and cafes but then iPads and such cannot work with them.
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK: You've got a point there. Hotels in the United States are different from those in foreign countries. So globalization takes a back seat in this situation. Good point.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted unfortunately the rest of the world except in matters of the iPhone,iPad and the like are way ahead of the US. I remember when I first moved here text messaging was almost unheard of and people used to mock me when i used to send an SMS and say nobody in America sends texts though now most American kids use text messaging, Cell phones too, the newest models used to release in Asia and Europe long before they got here (but Apple has changed all that). These USB mobile broadband devices are very convenient and are used all over Asia and Europe and I do wish they were cheaper and more prevalent here for as we know not all of NYC is not wired. In fact there are some neighborhoods which dont have any free wi-fi cafes. It would at least make my life easier for I could go work in the park on a beautiful summers day instead of being cooped up in my apartment
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hhusted
hhusted 2yrs+
I don't see the reason for texting. Why not just punch in a few numbers or hit a speed number and call the person.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@hhusted ah-ha that's exactly the response I got when I used to text when I first moved here.. hhusted sometimes you dont want to have a conversation but still get your news across, texts come handy in those instances or when you are traveling and don't want to pay exorbitant call charges then texts are a cheaper way to communicate.
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ajadedidealist
ajadedidealist 2yrs+
@uraniumfish - pretty sure it's free because it's 3 (the network) - I know 3 sells an unlimited monthly usage one in the UK for use in the UK (charges abroad), so it makes sense that my Danish flatmate's dongle would work for the month in Denmark....probably should double-check with her, though...
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
Man... @uptowngirl I actually remember a time way back when when texting wasn't my only means of communication. I've had a cell phone since 1999 or so - and I didn't even use texts at all! I had completely forgotten that I lived a life without texts! Now of course it's just about all I ever do.
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DBlack
DBlack 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK Remember the days of pacing while on the phone because it had a cord attached and you couldn't go too far? Who even has a landline any more?
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
@DBlack Nope. My parents always had a cordless, at least as far back as I can remember. And I kind of want to get a landline and a phone with a cord. I think it may have something to do with watching too many Wes Anderson films.
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JenMac
JenMac 2yrs+
My parents not only have a landline, they have a phone room / booth with a really old phone in it, and sometimes they actually sit in there to talk on it . . .which I think is so cool. It's very Madmen
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@Everyone we have a landline and also a corded phone in addition to the cordless all because of the Power Outage of 2003 when hubby dear was stuck with a dying cell phone battery. He wants to make sure that family members can reach him at all times and he is not stuck without any means of communication in case of a power outage.
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BroadwayBK
BroadwayBK 2yrs+
My parents have a landline too, but no cordless phones. The line comes as part of their Verizon Fios package. And I agree with JenMac, I love the aesthetics of a phone with a cord. I actually just remembered that my granddaddy had a rotary phone, which I could not appreciate at the time.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
@BroadwayBK just saw a fantastic travel documentary on legendary hotels in Asia and they featured the Eastern and Oriental Hotel in Penang, Malaysia. This is a truly old world historic property which is luxurious and outfitted with all its old world accouterments of yesteryear like rotary telephones and antique cage elevators. I was so enchanted by the hotel that earlier today was looking up rates and planning a stay at the hotel over Thanksgiving I so adore old things.
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uptowngirl
uptowngirl 2yrs+
Here's a link to the hotel
http://www.penang-hotels.com/eastern-oriental/location.htm
It even has a writer's suite..but it's way too expensive...
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
I'm old enough to remember the phones with the cords and to totally love the mobility of my mobile now. Seems like I went to Europe for a few years and poof! the mobile infiltrated all aspects of society seemingly on my return.
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Uraniumfish
Uraniumfish 2yrs+
@JenMac That IS so cool, just sitting down in a booth to talk on the phone. They have a row of old booths at the courthouse downtown, which is quaint, because I once ducked into one of them for privacy while I made a call on my cell phone.
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