Hong Kong’s Ovolo offers citywide free Wi-Fi

Ovolo Hotels has sealed a new partnership with the Hong Kong Broadband Network (HKBN) to offer free Wi-Fi to its guests anywhere in the city.

Starting with the launch of the new Ovolo Hotel in Aberdeen this summer, all guests to the group’s four Hong Kong hotels will receive free unlimited access to more than 9,000 HKBN Wi-Fi hotspots across the territory.

“At Ovolo we have always believed that the internet is as essential to guests as air or hot water. It should be free, fast, and plentiful. The idea to extend this commitment outside of our hotels with free uncapped access to Wi-Fi hotspots across Hong Kong will allow travellers to avoid excessive roaming charges, making for huge improvements in the way they can interact globally as they travel,” said Dirk Dalichau, Ovolo’s group director of operations.

Guests will be provided with a free single login ID that can be used across the city, and the service will be available for the full duration of the guests’ stay, plus 24 hours before arrival and after check-out.

While several hotel groups, such as Shangri-La and Best Western, already offer complimentary in-house Wi-Fi as standard, Ovolo Hotels is the first to extend the service outside the hotels and across an entire city. The move is part of the company’s aim to provide more ease to travellers, with other free offerings including breakfast, minibars, happy hours and laundry. In addition, the internet capacity at all the group’s properties is being upgraded to HKBN’s new fast 1gbps service.

Ovolo currently owns and operates four hotels and two serviced apartment properties in Hong Kong Island and West Kowloon, plus a hotel in Melbourne. But by the end of 2013 the company expects to grow its portfolio to eight properties worldwide.