I regularly stay at hotels worldwide and need a secure and fast internet connection for work purposes. Unfortunately hotels will often not have any information about their WiFi on their website, or they will overstate the how fast the internet really is.
HotelWiFITest aims to change that by allowing users to see speeds of hotels before they stay. They do this by allowing you to check the speed of the WiFi, they then use the foursquare API and your current location to pinpoint which hotel your currently staying at (if multiple hotels are in a small location, you select the hotel you stayed at). This information will then be recorded and available for future users to view.
What I Like About The Site
- Completely free, no sign up required
- Only site with this type of information
What Needs To Be Improved
- All data needs to be shown, for example at the moment when one person has tested the WiFi you’ll see information such as the time it was tested and whether the WiFI was paid or free. When multiple people have tested a location some of this information is removed and you cannot see individual tests. The site should display the averages at the top, as it’s currently doing and then all of the individual reports below.
- Too easy for it to be gamed by hotel staff, this fits in with the above. At the moment if hotel staff/owners are aware of this site they can easily game this site by running multiple tests at off peak times which will naturally have better WiFi speeds.
- Ability to leave a short review. Sometimes I’d like to be able to leave a short review as well, e.g “The internet is fast, but it constantly cuts out every 15 minutes” – this is the type of information I want to be able to view before I book a hotel – let me include it!
- Star ratings should be location based. If I am in Mynamar (Burma) I’m going to naturally expect much lower speeds than when I’m in South Korea. The star ratings should be based off other locations in the area (city/country), not on all hotels on the website.
- How much does the WiFi cost. There needs to be a section where users can specify how much WiFi costs, at some locations you can easily spend $50 for a day of high speed access. This isn’t a huge deal for most business customers (because the company will cover it) but for those who are a little more frugal it can be a game changer.
My Verdict
The site has only been around since October, 10th 2013 but they’ve already got a nice little database of information for travellers that need this type of information. I love this site because it has so much potential and hopefully it’ll force hotels to lower their fees for accessing WiFi (let’s be honest, this should be a free amenity at all hotels. If a $10 hostel can afford to do it, so can a $250 hotel).
They have a clear monetization path (hotel comparison search engine, earning affiliate commission) so there is also no chance that they will start charging for this type of data either – which makes me more likely to contribute myself.
What do you think of hotel WiFiTest?
