Monday, November 13, 2006

I’m at the Renaissance Toronto Hotel Downtown, and until a few minutes ago, I was pleased with the hotel. I was upgraded due to my Marriott Rewards status to a nice split-level suite that overlooks an empty SkyDome. The food is good. The service is good. However, I am now disgusted with the hotel, and with Marriott in general. Here’s the story:

I noticed earlier that spam-like banner ads were showing up in my browser. I would navigate to a page that I knew had no ads, and one would appear anyway, mostly touting online poker. Curious, I clicked on over to my own blog, and the same ad showed up there (see image below).

I assumed I had picked up some adware. Since the laptop is new, I haven’t had a chance to install spyware/adware software, so I paid for AdAware Pro and ran it. The ads kept showing up. A little investigation determined that all these ads link to a company called Superclick. I visited their site and learned more than I wanted to, enough to get my blood boiling. Superclick provides a guest interface for hotels that includes in-room services, which is fine. But it’s also dishing up these ads. So anybody staying at a property using Superclick who visits my blog will see an ad associated with it. I would never take advertising from an online poker site, and if I did, I’d expect to get some of the revenues.

Instead, I’m paying $12.95 per day to see these ads.

That’s right; that’s what the internet connection costs.

The graphic below is from the Superclick site, listing presumably satisfied customers. Before I book a reservation at any hotel in any of these chains, I will ask if the broadband connection for which they will charge me is going to serve up any ads I don’t want to see. If the answer is yet, I’ll book elsewhere. I’ll stay at a freaking Motel 6 before I put up with this kind of crap.

Unbelievable. Talk about a lack of respect—even outright contempt—for your customer.

Posted by Shel in • Hotels
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