I always bring my own access point. Helps when they have Ethernet. The OMNI didn’t. And its problem was something else. What mattered is that they knew they had a problem, during a major Internet-related trade show, and blew it off. I’ll avoid staying there again.

As for the Skype problem, it was a bad file in a library on my wife’s laptop. No blockage involved. This time, at least.

Two reasons.

First is the “Enterprise Overkill” approach. Very aggressive security systems perceive Skype’s p2p-ness and wily attempts to connect to other users as some sort of attack or the initiation of bandwidth-consuming bittorrents or file sharing. I’ve sometimes fixed this with a call to the hotel’s ISP’s help desk and get some temporary policy exceptions.

Second is the “Emirates Protectionist” strategy. Some hotels block Skype for commercial reasons. It cuts into their telephone surcharge revenue, especially if they cater to international business travelers. No joy if this is their motive.

The counter meme is hotels that charge as much as the market will tolerate [bear or bare?] but that open up the pipes and leave you to a darwinian fight for bandwidth with your fellow tenants.

My other bit of grief is that hotels say they offer wi-fi to all their rooms. They do. But your experience is vastly different if you are at the other end of the hall from a router. Tip 1: ask for rooms near a router if they don’t have in-room ethernet. Tip 2: bring your own portable wireless access point and run it off of in-room ethernet.

http://heartbeat.skype.com/2009/03/planned_maintenance_on_tuesday.html