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Now, hotels can't get away with having mediocre Wi-Fi speeds.
Hotelwifitest.com, which tests and predicts the Wi-Fi speed of hotels throughout the world, released a report on Wednesday that ranks hotel chains based on the percentage of their hotels with poor Wi-Fi performance.
The report, which also highlights the best and worst cities for high-speed Wi-Fi, advances Hotel WiFi Test's mission to deliver accurate Wi-Fi reports of hotels to travelers.
The top five hotel chains were (in order): Radisson Blu (17 percent of hotels with poor Wi-Fi), Hyatt Hotels & Resorts (34 percent), Quality Inn (35 percent), Best Western (35 percent) and Sheraton Hotels & Resorts (36 percent).
The top five cities were (in order): Stockholm (4 percent), Hong Kong (8 percent), Amsterdam (17 percent), Tokyo (19 percent) and Rome (27 percent). San Diego was the top U.S. location at No. 9 (33 percent), followed by Washington D.C. (37 percent) and Chicago (38 percent).
Currently, a hotel with "adequate" Wi-Fi has download speeds of at least 2 Mbps, upload speeds of at least 1 Mbps, latency not exceeding 500 ms and an average stability rating of at least 3 out of 5 (although Hotel WiFi Test President Yaroslav Goncharov recently told TravelPulse that expectations could increase as guest demand and Wi-Fi availability rise).
The report isn't perfect, as some hotels were only measured by download speeds because upload testing, latency testing and stability feedback are new additions to Hotel WiFi Test's testing process. The report also does not differentiate between free and paid Wi-Fi.
But it's certainly a step in the right direction as more and more travelers not only desire adequate Wi-Fi, but also require it.
A recent survey by Hotels.com highlighted just how attached travelers around the world are to mobile devices. Ten countries in the survey were particularly unwilling to give up their mobile devices during their travels, including Thailand (85 percent of the country's travelers), Korea (78 percent), Japan (69 percent), China (67 percent), Singapore (60 percent) and Taiwan (53 percent). Obviously, the fact that all six of these countries are part of an Asian market that is being heavily targeted by the travel industry is no small thing. And it's safe to say these countries are going to want adequate Wi-Fi for their mobile devices.
Sites like Hotel WiFi Test are raising the bar for hotel Internet speed, and guests are looking for more bars on their mobile devices and computers. If your hotel has mediocre Wi-Fi (whether paid or free), you may want to change that fast.
To view the full Hotel WiFi Test report, go to hotelwifitest.com.
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