How Can You Tell If Your Hotel Has Fast Wifi?

Study after study shows that fast and free Wifi is extremely important to travelers, yet not all hotels have gotten the memo. After looking at a study by HotelWifiTest I was disappointed to find that 79% of countries have better wifi than the US. That’s terrible!

The report released in January includes a ton of data about the different countries. Here are some graphics from the study –

Click here for the full report.

Asia had the highest Wifi quality in the study, and Europe overall was more likely to have adequate WiFi than anywhere in the US.

The news isn’t all bad though. Hotels used to charge exorbitant fees for using Wifi but have slowly started offering it for free to guests.

The list of hotels offering free Wifi to guests is constantly growing.

Here’s a current list of some of the larger hotel brands offering free Wifi –

Ace
Aloft
Andaz
Art Series Hotels
Atura Hotels
Baymont Inn & Suites
Best Western
Candlewood Suites
Courtyard by Marriott
Crowne Plaza
Days Inn
Edition Hotels
Element
Even Hotels
Fairfield Inn
Fairmont
Four Points by Sheraton
Hampton Inn & Suites
Hawthorne Suites by Wyndham
Hilton Garden Inn
Holiday Inn
Home2 Suites
Homewood Suites
Hotel Indigo
Howard Johnson
Hyatt
InterContinental
Kimpton
Le Meridien
Omni
Peninsula
QT Hotels
Ramada
Residence Inn
Rydges
Sheraton
Springfield Suites
Springhill Suites
St Regis
Staybridge Suites
Super 8
The Luxury Collection
Travelodge
W Hotels
Westin
Wingate by Wyndham

Note:

Marriott requires Marriott Rewards members to book directly through Marriott rather than 3rd party booking channels.

SPG requires members to book online through their own website or via mobile app in order to receive free internet.

InterContinental requires guests to be members of their Rewards Club.

Hilton offers free Wifi only to their HHonors program Gold and Diamond members.

Starwood, Marriott and Hyatt offer “Premium” Wifi to elite members.

Even with “Premium” Wifi, I often find myself frustrated at top end hotels when I’m trying to work and everything I do online is painfully slow. This led me to ask the question, “How do you know if your hotel’s Wifi is good enough?”

That’s where the Hotel Wifi Test app comes in. It can be used to do a speed test while in a hotel, and also offers a snapshot of hotel download speed so you can research before you even book your hotel.

Recently I stayed at the Aloft London Excel (you can find the review here). There was an issue with the Wifi at the time I was at the property that didn’t allow any connection at all on the higher floors. I was told that it would be hopefully be fixed by the day after I left. Using the app I can see that Wifi there is free, and if using a minimum benchmark download requirement of 3 Mbps this hotel has adequate Wifi for most activities.

Compare that with The Ritz London, which has a much quicker download speed of 29.3 Mbps.

Click here to be taken to the app. It’s easy to use and interesting. Even if you don’t have control over hotel Wifi at least you can figure out which properties provide fast quality Wifi.