The other side in the connection controversy

There are two sides to every story. At least that’s what they teach you in journalism school.

Stephen Burroughs, the general manager of the Holiday Inn Select Atlanta Airport South, gets the unenviable task of representing the other side in our perpetual debate about hotel connection fees this week.

It’s unenviable because we’ve been through so many columns on the issue that I’m tempted to call this feature “The Travel Connectivist” from now on. We’ve also heard from a horde of angry road warriors who apparently believe hotels have no right to charge guests for phone, Internet access or incoming faxes. Ever.

But, I think Burroughs is up to it. He’s got 22 years of experience in the hotel industry and earlier this year helped open the 190-room Holiday Inn at Hartsfield – “the closest hotel to the baggage claim area,” he boasts – which, coincidentally, is also the highest-rated of the 74 “select” properties in the chain.

So I put a few questions to Burroughs about our favorite topic. First and foremost, what’s the hotelier’s perspective on phone connections and the controversial charges surrounding them?

“I get an awful lot of questions about why we charge 75 cents for [local] calls,” he says. “Usually, once I explain it to them, they understand. They accept it.”

I asked him to elaborate. What is your explanation?

The Holiday Inn Select is charged a maintenance fee of $35 to $45 a month for each phone line, says Burroughs. With 52 lines installed, that translates into a bill of between $1,820 and $2,340 per month. “We have to recoup that,” he adds.

Couldn’t the hotel just install fewer phone lines? Sure, says Burroughs, but that would create its own challenges. “What we find is that for most hotels, you don’t get a lot of phone traffic during the day unless you have the meeting in the hotel. Then, when the group breaks at 10 a.m., 12 a.m., or 2 p.m., they check their messages, and you watch the board light up. At night, you really get hit. The challenge is to have enough lines so that people can make a call,” he says.

The hotel hasn’t run out of phone lines – yet. But the general manager says that if anything, his property will add more lines, which will also increase his costs. The only reasonable way to recoup those expenses is to pass them along as a per-call charge to customers.

A lot of hotel guests don’t see it that way. They note that some properties allow free unlimited calls while others charge for each call and then add a per-minute charge after the first 20 or 30 minutes. To them, a charge of any kind is a way for a hotel to boost its bottom line.

“The charges are not very popular,” Burroughs admits. “But the profit isn’t the greatest, either. In fact, our hotel lost money on its phone systems the first three months of operation.”

(I’m inclined to believe that. According to research conducted by consultants at PKF, the profits made by phones represent a fraction of hotel revenues.)

The hotel’s top executive is sympathetic to the plight of business travelers who can’t go anywhere without a laptop and, indeed, are prisoners to the 75-cent-per-call charge. However, bundling those extra fees into the room rate is something he won’t entertain. “A room rate is something you don’t want to mess with. It’s very competitive out there,” he says. So until a better solution comes along, Burroughs and his staff will continue to defend their policy of billing travelers 75 cents for each local call made. He says he doesn’t know what, if anything will change. Maybe more hotels will begin absorbing phone expenses into their room rates, or maybe the issue will go away by itself, as more business travelers rely on their cell phones.

“I’m a hotel manager,” he reminds me, “not a futurist.”

Fair enough. But the Holiday Inn Select is preparing for the future, even though it may not know what will happen. Already, its dual lines in every room offer caller ID (a rarity) and the property just inked a deal with CAIS Internet to provide high-speed access from its rooms.

“I think once people use it, they’ll never go back to the phone lines,” he predicts.

Many frequent travelers reading this might have trouble with Burroughs’s decisions to keep a per-call fee. They might find it ironic that he complains about connection costs but then adds high-speed Internet access. They might even beg to differ over the idea that the phone should be a profit center.

But I see the right decisions that he’s made, too. The connection charge is reasonable compared with that imposed by many other hotels, where you pick up a phone and are socked $1.50 or more. There are no “surprise” fees once you’ve been connected for more than half an hour. And Burroughs seems genuinely interested in finding a solution in which business travelers can stay connected – and he doesn’t lose his shirt.

I’m inclined to believe that’s possible. What do you think? Do you agree with the Holiday Inn’s policies? If so, why? If not, what should it change?

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

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