One reader can’t abide the high cost of accessing the Internet while traveling Stanley wrote with a complaint that hits home with me. I suspect this is something that has angered anyone who ever had to work while traveling: the cost of Internet access in hotels.“I’ve spent the last week in Scandinavia on a business trip,” writes Stanley. “Until I tried to log on from here, I never realized how good Internet access is in the U.S. In the states, when you check into a business hotel, Internet is often included in the price of the room. At the very least, it’s reasonably priced and available via Wi-Fi, so it can be shared by everyone in the room. And if it’s not, there’s almost always a cafe down the street willing to share its broadband connection for the cost of a latte.”[ Frustrated by tech support? Get answers in InfoWorld’s Gripe Line newsletter. ] Stanley also writes that is has long annoyed him that low-end hotels give away in-room Wi-Fi while higher-priced hotels — often in the same hotel chain — ding customers who are already paying a lot more for their room with a fee to get work done while in that room.“But here in the Marriot in Copenhagen,” says Stanley, “it’s out of control. The hotel wants to ream me for $30 a day, per computer, for Net access. It’s an Ethernet connection in the room so that means no sharing with colleagues who just want to download e-mail. Wi-Fi in the lobby is available — but at the same insane rate. If I don’t want to pay this fee, I have no choice but to go in search of a café or restaurant that will give me Wi-Fi while I eat — not an ideal way to get work done. Commercial Wi-Fi services are widely available — outside the hotel — but they are equally usurious — typically $10 an hour.”Part of Stanley’s problem is the exchange rate, of course. But the fee is high for anyone traveling from elsewhere in Europe or the United Kingdom. Shouldn’t a high-end business hotel make it easy to get work done while traveling, not reduce guests to backpacking around the city looking for a connection that doesn’t leave them feeling violated? Indeed, according to HotelChatter.com’s 2009 report on the best and worst hotels for Wi-Fi access, the Marriot makes the “worst” list for high Internet access fees. In fact, the hotels that make the site’s “best” list tend to be the budget hotels such as the Courtyard by Marriot, which gives away Wi-Fi to guests paying much less for their room. Where is the logic in that? Maybe it’s time to rethink “comfort” while traveling? Personally, I don’t find getting robbed comfortable even if the towels are fluffier.Got gripes? Send them to christina_tynan-wood@infoworld.com. Technology Industry