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Hilton brands suck for hotel WiFi based on USA data from hotelwifitest.com

Hotelwifitest.com published some results yesterday from their report Hotel Wifi Test ranks hotel chains. I discussed the global results in this post today: Loyalty Traveler – HotelWifiTest ranks hotel brands by WiFi quality.

One of the main findings of the report is a hotel brand’s hotels in the USA often perform far less adequately that the hotels in the brand outside the USA.

And another finding is Hilton Worldwide hotel brands suck for hotel Wifi.

Best and worst hotel chains for hotel WiFi in the United States

Hotel Wifi USA

Graph source: hotelwifitest.com

Marriott Hotels rank on top for the USA in hotel Wi-Fi speed and quality, followed by Westin #2, Hyatt #3, Sheraton #4 and Best Western #5.

However, the main aspect of the graph to note are the blue lines for the percentage of hotels in the brand with adequate WiFi is below 50% for all Top Five hotel brands in the USA. Marriott Hotels is the only brand shown in the USA graph that allows a comparison from the Hotel Chains Worldwide WiFi graph, where Marriott ranked #10 with about 55% or so of hotels measured as adequate WiFi.

Hilton Worldwide brands suck for quality WiFi in the USA with four of its brands ranking in the bottom five of 25 brands. These same four brands also ranked in the bottom ten of 50 hotel brands worldwide in the Hotel WiFi Test results.

Hilton Garden Inn #21, Embassy Suites, #22, Homewood Suites #23 and Hampton Inn #25 make the bottom five. Hampton Inn is the second largest hotel brand in the USA behind Holiday Inn Express. These four brands make up about 3,000 hotels of Hilton’s close to 5,000 hotels worldwide. Hilton Hotels ranks #3 in Europe, behind Nordic Choice Hotels and Radisson Blu. Most of the Hilton Worldwide international presence is in Hilton Hotels. Those HHonors loyalists from abroad must be surprised when they come to the USA and can’t get a webpage to load.

Extended Stay America took position #24.

IHG’s Holiday Inn Express is one of the worst performing hotel brands in Europe, but the brand’s USA ranking is not revealed in the data released to the public by Hotel Wifi Test.

Free Wifi is far less an issue than is suggested by the red lines on the graph. Hotel loyalty program members have free WiFi in all the major chains with Hilton HHonors finally putting free WiFi as a worldwide member benefit beginning August 2015.

Loyalty Traveler – Hilton Free Wi-Fi for all HHonors members begins August 2015 (March 2, 2015).

The March 2015 announcement made a point of stating Hilton HHonors Diamond elite members receive free premium WiFi.

Looks like you will need that premium WiFi service at most Hilton brand hotels in the USA.

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2 Comments

  • Charles Clarke May 31, 2015

    I suspect that a large part of the difference in the quality of bandwidth has to do with the folks staying at a hotel. The more of their market that uses streaming video/audio, the more bandwidth the hotels need to provide to still be considered adequate. I’ve noticed at some hotels with reasonable bandwidth in the morning or afternoon, they really slow down in the evening when folks would be watching movies, etc. That probably also explains why the extended stay brands have more issues. The longer someone stays at a hotel, the more likely they are to be watching movies in the evening instead of having a long tourist day and going to sleep so they can travel the next day.

    Of course, you can easily argue that the hotels should know this and plan adequately. Though I think the amount of streaming video/audio has surprised a lot of folks. And probably isn’t the highest priority of an industry that has focused on providing lodging and maybe meals for folks. Upgrading bandwidth can be a pain. I expect we will see some smarter solutions that limit bandwidth hogging and allow folks to use a certain amount/rate unimpeded by the hogs and then you’d only be able to use more if any was left over.

    Also I’m not surprised that there is a weak negative correlation between whether it is free and the quality of the bandwidth. How much is folks not valuing the ‘free’ properly and abusing it and how much is to drive folks into paying for the premium is the real question for me. I suspect both are at play.

  • Ric Garrido June 2, 2015

    I notice the difference in speed throughout the day at many hotels. The problem with slower speed in the evening is one I regularly encounter. Good thing I do much of my work in the morning.

    I am always astounded to hear how much bandwidth is used by people streaming movies.

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