Plugged in, charged up, and ready to relax

“Connectivity has to be part of the travel experience now,’’ said Eric Stumberg, president of TengoInternet, a Texas-based company that provides wireless Internet service to RV parks and marinas nationwide and in Mexico and Canada. “People want to share their experiences on Facebook immediately. When they want entertainment, they are not watching cable TV, they’re downloading Netflix. They’re getting maps and directions from Google. They’re gaming.’’

When Stumberg cofounded his company in 2002, about 10 campgrounds in the United States offered Wi-Fi, he said. Now about 5,000 of the country’s approximately 13,000 campgrounds do. “If you do not have this amenity, people will not stay with you.’’

And if they do decide to camp, they don’t want to be too far from the Wi-Fi source. At the Boston Minuteman Campground in Littleton, some guests are more concerned with being able to pick up the campground’s wireless Internet than with scoring a secluded spot.

“I’m spending more time on IT matters than outdoors,’’ said Maureen Nussdorfer, the owner and manager. She recently added a second Wi-Fi modem to ensure coverage throughout the campground.

“We’ve been here since 1973, and all you needed at the time was a picnic table and a fireplace,’’ Nussdorfer recalled. “Then you needed water on the site, and electricity, and now you need wireless.’’

That’s need, as in nonnegotiable. One innkeeper likened arriving guests who instantly ask for the wireless code to smokers desperate for a nicotine fix. Their charging needs come next. Annette Hazzard, an owner of the Blue Harbor House, in Camden, Maine, had to buy electric outlet strips for all the rooms simply to make things easier for the inn staff.

“Before we did, we’d come into the room and find everything unplugged, the TV, the lamps. It was easier for us [to add outlets] than to crawl under the bed to replug everything in,’’ she said.