Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Knowing your hotel’s wi-fi connectivity

LONDON — When it comes to choosing a hotel, the availability of free Wi-Fi is an increasingly important factor for business travellers and holidaymakers alike.

LONDON — When it comes to choosing a hotel, the availability of free Wi-Fi is an increasingly important factor for business travellers and holidaymakers alike.

Now a new website is providing help in the search for free and fast wireless Web access. Hotelwifitest.com lets hotel guests test the speed of their Internet connection, and then stores the results for others to view. It also records whether the Wi-Fi is free or not.

Once tested, the hotel is listed on the website with an “expected speed” in megabits per second 
(Mbps). The range, also in Mbps, is also displayed, as are room rates and reviews courtesy of Hotels.com. The result can also be shared on 
social media.

Hundreds of hotels have been rated, including 51 in London, 160 in New York, 42 in San Francisco, 35 in Singapore and 21 in Amsterdam. It is relying on travellers to expand its coverage. (The lists are actually much longer, but only 35 in Singapore, for example, were actually tested for their Wi-Fi connectivity — the rest are only estimates.) According to the website, the top-rated hotels in popular destinations included the Da Vinci Hotel in New York (100 Mbps), the Ham Yard Hotel in London (84.2 Mbps), The Pottinger Hong Kong (66.1 Mbps), the Amigo Budget Hotel in Amsterdam (104 Mbps) and Swissotel Le Concorde, Bangkok (20.4 Mbps). (Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands offers the most rapid connection here with a speed of 54.6 Mbps recorded, and a range of 36.3 to 61.8.)

Most hotels around the world offer free Wi-Fi, the website suggests, but many still charge for access, or for access to a faster “premium” connection. In London, they include the Courthouse Hotel, Atelier EC1 by Bridgestreet, Park Plaza Victoria London, W Leicester Square, and branches of Ibis and Holiday Inn.

“The promise of free Wi-Fi is a big draw in today’s age of constant connectivity,” the website stated. “Nothing could be more disheartening than turning on your laptop, only to realise that the hotel’s Wi-Fi is so slow, it will take four hours to view a 
30-minute video.

“You can be instrumental when it comes to persuading hotels to invest in fast and reliable Wi-Fi. When you stay at a hotel, simply connect to in-house Wi-Fi and run a speed test at http://www.hotelwifitest.com. Then, you can share the results via a number of social media sites with one click. Because social media is such a big part of everyday life, the value of a tweet or venue tip on Foursquare should never be underestimated.”

While the website relies on travellers to collect data, it claims “smart algorithms” are employed in its verification process. “This is very important when it comes to locations with a high concentration of hotels in a small area, because the close proximity of several providers could affect the outcome of the test. In order to ensure that our results are fair and accurate, we never use them in reports until they are verified,” 
it added.

A survey of thousands of hotels across the European continent carried out earlier this year found that around 90 per cent now offer free access, but, of the 10 worst cities for free Wi-Fi, three — Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester — were British. 
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.