There's a certain type of hotel marketing that's hard to miss these days: serene photos, minimalist fonts, and a proud announcement that guest rooms have no Wi-Fi, because you 'deserve to be present.' It sounds mindful. It sounds expensive. And for a growing number of travellers, it's an instant reason to book somewhere else.
The frustration is simple: removing Wi-Fi isn't an amenity, it's a decision made on your behalf. There's a real difference between a hotel that helps you switch off and one that decides for you. Some guests genuinely want a screen-free week. Others need to check in with family, download a hiking route, or finish a work call before joining dinner. Travelling with kids, managing a health condition, or navigating an unfamiliar country all get harder when the internet is treated like a vice.
What makes the trend feel especially grating is how it's packaged. The no-Wi-Fi pitch usually arrives wrapped in wellness branding — hammocks, yoga poses, gentle scolding disguised as hospitality. Instead of framing connectivity as an option guests can use or ignore, these hotels frame its absence as a favour. Critics argue that's less about wellness and more about cost-cutting dressed up as philosophy, or a way to push guests toward lobby areas and paid tiers.
The reasonable alternative already exists: hotels that offer good connectivity by default and make it easy to opt out. Want a digital detox? Leave the laptop in the bag, use the hotel's phone-free lounge, take the guided off-grid hike. Nobody needs the router physically removed to put a phone down. Choice, not restriction, is what actually feels like hospitality.
This isn't a plea to stay glued to a screen on holiday. Unplugging is great — plenty of travellers actively seek out remote cabins and signal-free places. The issue is who gets to decide. A hotel that trusts its guests to manage their own habits is doing more for your peace of mind than one that lectures you in a tasteful serif font.
For travellers booking right now, it's worth checking the fine print before you pay for a 'wellness' stay. If being offline is genuinely your goal, there are wonderful off-grid options that are honest about it. If it isn't, filter for properties that list Wi-Fi as standard, and treat any hotel that withholds it 'for your own good' as a useful signal about how they view their guests. One small road-trip motel between Tahoe and British Columbia, it should be said, manages to be both pet-friendly and connected — which may be the most relaxing amenity of all.