Breakfast offers have gone down

Fewer hotels are offering free breakfasts, more are charging for late cancellation and more are offering free in-room wireless Internet access.

Those are some of the findings from a recent survey of 10,000 hotels conducted by Smith Travel Research for the American Hotel & Lodging Assn.

Fifty-nine percent of respondents offer a complimentary breakfast, down 9 percentage points from 2006. In terms of rates, 67% offer weekend specials, up 8 percentage points from 2006, while those that charge for late cancellation rose 8 percentage points to 82%.

Wireless Internet access is being offered by 91% of hotels, up 35% from four years ago, the survey found. Only 15% of hotels charge for Internet access, down from 18% in 2006 and 22% in 2004.