A new study from the website hotelwifitest.com finds that the lodging chain with the overall best Wi-Fi quality in guest rooms is not a U.S. company but a Scandinavian group.
The site examined Wi-Fi quality at 50 hotel chains worldwide and rated Nordic Choice in the number one spot. Nordic Choice has scores of hotels in the Scandinavian countries, most of them affiliated with Choice International brands like Comfort, Quality and Clarion. What’s more, it offers free Wi-Fi at all of its locations, the report noted. (The study also estimated what percentage of a chain’s properties offer free in-room Wi-Fi.)
How do they judge Wi-Fi quality? “A hotel judged as having adequate WiFi must provide an expected download speed of at least 3 Mbps (the Netflix recommendation for SD-quality streaming) and an upload speed of 500 kbps (the Skype recommendation for high-quality non-HD video calling),” the company said.
”WiFi Quality is expressed by the percentage of hotels that offer adequate WiFi quality in a given geographical area. This type of ranking is easy to understand, and it makes perfect sense from a practical standpoint. For most travelers, having super-fast and consistently stable WiFi is a great bonus, but their first priority is ensuring that basic quality expectations for Internet access are met.”
The Radisson Blu chain ranked second in Wi-Fi quality, followed by Marriott’s Renaissance brand, France‘s Mercure and Ibis groups, Scandic Hotels, InterContinental, Econo Lodge, Four Points, and Marriott Hotels.
Chains not on the list were excluded because they didn’t have enough tested hotels.
Following is the full list of chains.
Chain name | WiFi Quality | Free WiFi | |
1 | Nordic Choice | 84.7% | 100% |
2 | Radisson Blu | 68.8% | 95.2% |
3 | Renaissance | 61.0% | 30% |
4 | Mercure | 60.7% | 83.6% |
5 | Ibis and ibis styles | 60.3% | 84.2% |
6 | Scandic Hotels | 57.6% | 100% |
7 | Inter-Continental | 56.3% | 42.1% |
8 | Econo Lodge | 55.3% | 86.2% |
9 | Four Points | 54.2% | 79.5% |
10 | Marriott Hotels & Resorts | 52.5% | 18.1% |
11 | Hyatt Hotels | 49.0% | 100% |
12 | Sheraton Hotels & Resorts | 47.1% | 37.0% |
13 | Radisson | 47.1% | 93.8% |
14 | Sleep Inn | 46.8% | 88.8% |
15 | Novotel | 46.5% | 82.2% |
16 | Best Western | 45.6% | 91.8% |
17 | Quality | 45.6% | 87.9% |
18 | Hilton Hotels & Resorts | 45.6% | 26.0% |
19 | Crowne Plaza | 45.1% | 68.2% |
20 | Sofitel | 43.9% | 73.6% |
21 | Ramada | 43.6% | 86.6% |
22 | Comfort Suites | 43.3% | 89.1% |
23 | Westin | 43.0% | 25% |
24 | Super 8 | 42% | 90.6% |
25 | Comfort Inn | 40.2% | 88.8% |
26 | Holiday Inn Express | 37.3% | 90.0% |
27 | Days Inn | 35.8% | 91.4% |
28 | Holiday Inn | 35.5% | 73.5% |
29 | Country Inn & Suites | 35.3% | 93.1% |
30 | Four Seasons | 34.9% | 43.5% |
31 | Courtyard | 33.8% | 93.1% |
32 | Residence Inn | 33.5% | 95.2% |
33 | La Quinta Inn & Suites | 33.1% | 95.1% |
34 | Wyndham Hotels | 32.8% | 85.3% |
35 | Travelodge | 30% | 91.3% |
36 | Staybridge Suites | 29.6% | 91.8% |
37 | TownePlace Suites | 29.4% | 95.0% |
38 | Doubletree | 29.3% | 61.7% |
39 | SpringHill Suites | 27.7% | 96.9% |
40 | Red Roof Inn | 26.5% | 98.2% |
41 | Hyatt Place | 23.3% | 100% |
42 | Fairfield Inn | 19.4% | 96.0% |
43 | Hilton Garden Inn | 17.1% | 97.1% |
44 | Candlewood Hotel | 17.0% | 85.7% |
45 | Motel 6 | 15.9% | 43.8% |
46 | NH Hotels | 12.0% | 97.2% |
47 | Embassy Suites | 10.3% | 24.0% |
48 | Extended Stay America | 8.8% | 100% |
49 | Homewood Suites | 8.8% | 93.9% |
50 | Hampton Inn | 8.6% | 92.3% |
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you are very vague on if these were for hotels in the United States or Europe??????
It sounds like this is for Scandinavian hotels, which I really don’t need to know.
Fairmont Hotels?