No one’s using hotel phones anymore

Just like carriers are weeping over the demise of long distance revenue, so are hotels, who’re finding that no one uses their in-room phones thanks to cell phones. Guests are eschewing their high ‘Net rates, too. “Just like minibar charges, telephone and most Internet connection rates are obscene,” Jim Pancero, a Minneapolis sales consultant, tells USA Today. And you can’t get drunk off the latter two. “I have a personal motto that I never pay for Internet in hotels,” notes Kathie Nunley, an educational psychologist in Amherst, N.H. Nifty, Kathie. That’s much better than Kathie’s former personal motto: “Don’t take any wooden nickels.” Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association, says phone charges were “a huge moneymaker,” but now “everybody has a cellphone attached to their ears,” and hotels “make almost zero.” Raise your hand if you feel for the AHLA. Via USA Today