Of course we have all heard of World Hotel Ratings, and Seven Star hotels and HOTREC ratings and indices to classify the standards of hotels across the globe. From the uber-luxurious to the below satisfactory they are all there. A new trend has sprung up however, with a new way to rate hotels that echoes the fast growing data consumption of modern life. Online portal Hotelwifitest grades a hotel based on the quality of the Wi-Fi connection offered.
According to a Hotelwifitest press release, the feature can predict Wi-Fi speeds of major hotels around the world. The prediction tool works in a manner similar to the thought process of a traveller, who has a fair idea about the Wi-Fi speeds in a hotel in different cities across the globe. The machine learning algorithm that is employed by Hotelwifitest aims to solve the issues of subjective knowledge and bringing precision into the picture.
The website claims to cover hotels worldwide and has a current list of over 100,000 hotels in its database. The information provided is a complete breakdown of sorts on the list of hotels in a particular city. It provides the ‘Expected speed’ for the hotels, also mentions whether the Wi-Fi is free or paid for, has confidence ratings, and gives a range for the Wi-Fi connectivity in the hotel. All this Wi-Fi information is provided along with the nightly rates of living in the hotel (US dollar price of course), so that those using the portal have another measure.
For those hotels where the testing has not actually taken place there is a clear mention of the same. The Hotewifitest confidence value (confidence ratings) shows how thoroughly the Wi-Fi has been tested at this hotel. The confidence value depends on several factors, including the number of speed tests taken, how recently the tests occurred, and the diversity of tests in terms of the time of day, day of the week, and point within the travel season.
For example when we typed New Delhi in the search bar on the website, it threw up several results. The ‘Taj Palace Hotel’ near Dhaula Kuan came in at the top with an expected speed of 36.7Mbps, with a range was from 13Mbps to 57Mbps. The next in the line was the Taj Mahal Hotel located on Number One Mansingh Road with an expected speed of 15.4Mbps.
The website says that users too can be a part of the endeavour to make Hotelwifitest more accurate. A guest at any hotel can connect to in-house Wi-Fi and run a speed test at the website. Then, the results can be shared via a number of social media sites. The website says that such comments provide a valuable service to other travelers who figure in fast and reliable internet when booking accommodation. In fact users can also post the results to the hotel’s social media websites where they can be reviewed by both the public and hotels. Even if users do not wish to make the findings public, when the website has enough results it analyses them and generates its cumulative results page that hotel management or potential guests can view via social media, or by visiting the website.
The website also details why testing for Wi-Fi in hotels is important. One of the ways, according to the website, in which the hotels hold consumers to ransom is by charging them top dollar for the Wi-Fi and by throttling the bandwidth so that guests are restricted to light browsing and checking mails. Heavy duty applications or even buffering videos takes forever. Given that the Internet is a vital cog in relaying information and communication now, worldwide, the website hopes to address the issue of hotels providing good Internet connectivity to guests without burning holes in their pockets.
