Is there any way of evaluating the quality of a hotel's internet connection in advance?
I'm on the road a lot for work. I tend to end up staying at a lot of budget chain hotels that offer free wi-fi. So far so good. But sadly, not all wi-fi is created equal. The past few weeks I've been subjected to a particularly shameful string of terrible connections, and I've decided to try to take matters into my own hands and research the speed/quality of a given hotels connection ahead of time...
... only to find that there is absolutely nowhere on the internet that this is discussed at all. I would think that, by now, some enterprising traveller would have created a listing of some sort, which, even if not comprehensive, could be a start. But I'm coming up completely cold.
And so I turn to you Travel.SE: Does this exist? If not, do I have any other options for researching the quality of any given hotels internet other than trying to skim 200 tripadvisor reviews, most of which are probably faked?
Best Answer
The biggest problem with hotel wi-fi (and conference centre wi-fi) is us. Travelling nerds who need 2 or 3 IP addresses each (and try to do their work each evening while regular people are watching TV) typically bring these systems to their knees. I've had so many hotel people tell me they never get complaints like these the rest of the year, and I actually believe them. Therefore, the system would probably report the wifi was fine most of the time. But when you need to download that video while uploading the new giant PowerPoint, all while your email comes in and you sync with source control, you would declare it horrible. And it's worse when 75% of the rooms in the hotel contain people who are doing the very same thing, but the system is sized for 10% of the people checking email and looking at pictures of their grandchildren.
I think your best bet is a plan B. Those USB-stick thingies are going to be mine. I have also left the hotel and gone to Starbucks. Sometimes when the conference centre sucked I went back to the hotel, and once when the hotel sucked I went back to the conference centre. On that occasion the hotel wifi just plain sucked - I couldn't even read email or load web pages. But perhaps it would have been ok during a less nerdy week.
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How can you measure the quality of your Internet connection?
The line quality, ping, jitter and packet loss results reflected in the https://www.voipreview.org/speedtest test can help determine the quality of your Internet connection. If your line quality is poor, you should contact your Internet Service Provider (ISP) to get the issue resolved.How can I get better Internet in a hotel?
In most cases, somewhere right in your hotel room is a wired ethernet port, that likely has a much better upstream connection than the hotel Wi-Fi. Easy enough to use for a laptop (depending on its location), but to make it available to all your devices - use a wireless travel router.Which connection will give them the best performance for accessing the Internet at home?
Embrace ethernetCabled connections like ethernet, will always be faster and more reliable than wireless ones. The cable gets the signal directly to your device rather than relying on over-the-air transmissions. If you can, connect your most important devices to the internet via an ethernet cable.Top 3 Factors for Hotels to Consider When Evaluating Technology Providers
More answers regarding is there any way of evaluating the quality of a hotel's internet connection in advance?
Answer 2
One trick is to look up the place on Foursquare - if people have checked in on wifi, it's a sign there's likely free internet, and often if the connection is poor, people comment on that on foursquare as well.
Answer 3
You might be able to try asking questions each time here with a shortlist of the places you have in mind.
I assume you are already reading the reviews on HostelWorld, HostelBookers, and TripAdvisor? They won't necessarily cover the net connections in the places but they might.
Answer 4
Are you only talking about hotels in your own country, or do you also visit other countries frequently on your trip?
In New Zealand the WiFi/Broadband connections in hotels are either non-existent, not included (some charge you an extra $25/day for wifi!) or terrible slow; that's why i carry my own 3G modem stick whenever i leave my house. Faster and cheaper in most cases, plus i wont have to fiddle with my computers network settings each time i set up camp somewhere.
Answer 5
The site http://www.hotelwifitest.com/ aims to do this sort of thing; I don't know how good it is.
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