Skift Take

Proof that price doesn't buy speed.

Red Roof Inn guests will find the fastest Wi-Fi speeds out of any hotel chain in the country, according to a wefi report released yesterday.

The company analyzed data collected from more than 45 million hotspot locations across the country from multiple cable operators, and came up with a ranking of the top US hotels and beaches for Wi-Fi.

Red Roof Inn topped the chart with 4.34 mbps speeds, demonstrating that improvements they’ve made have increased Wi-Fi speeds, according to Jeff Linden, Red Roof Inn’s chief information officer.

“At Red Roof, we recognize that Wi-Fi is the #1 amenity in the hospitality sector. Over the past year and a half, we focused on increasing bandwidth to the inns, implementing cable or fiber solutions wherever we could. This year the focus is on the infrastructure within the inns, increasing the number of access points so that we eliminate any dead zones,” he said.

Choice Hotels also did well, with Sleep Inn taking the top two spot with 4.14 mbps and Clarion Inn, Comfort Inn and Quality Inn all ranking in the top 15.

“Fast and free Wi-Fi is important to all our guests, and especially our business travelers. We were among the first to have a mobile app and this ranking shows how we keep moving forward,” said Sarah Lee, director of public relations for Choice Hotels International.

Top Hotels with Fastest Wi-Fi

Hotel Chains Wi-Fi Speeds
Red Roof Inns 4.34 mbps
Sleep Inn 4.14 mbps
Ramada 3.69 mbps
Holiday Inn 3.68 mbps
Best Western 3.66 mbps
Aloft Hotels 3.42 mbps
Studio 6 3.22 mbps
Hilton 3.17 mbps
Quality Inns 3.15 mbps
Four Points by Sheraton 3.04 mbps
Comfort Inn 2.99 mbps
Candlewood Suites 2.69 mbps
Radisson 2.43 mbps
Clarion 2.42 mbps
Doubletree Hotel 2.32 mbps

Surfing X 2

Four California beaches made the list of the top nine beaches in the country with fastest Wi-Fi. Florida’s Clearwater Beach was number one with 2.9 mbps, and Miami’s South Beach was number four with 1.9 mbps. Any cable Wi-Fi customer of Bright House, Cox, Cablevision, Comcast or Time Warner who is vacationing or visiting Clearwater Beach can log on for free.

“This is part of the national CableWiFi program that the major operators have aligned to provide as a great ‘value added’ to our broadband customers!” said Brian Aungst, corporate senior director of government and public relations at Bright House, the beach’s largest Wi-Fi supplier.

Wefi also released data for US airports with the fastest Wi-Fi. It shows that the top three airports with the fastest Wi-Fi all had faster speeds than the top three hotels for fastest Wi-Fi.

The metrics are based on a 45-day average of wifi speeds for each location starting from April 1 to June 15, 2014.

Top Beaches with Fastest Wi-Fi

Beaches Wi-Fi Speeds
Clearwater Beach, Florida 2.9 mbps
Atlantic City, New Jersey 2.8 mbps
Mission Beach, California 2.1 mbps
South Beach Miami, Florida 1.9 mbps
Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 1.8 mbps
Santa Monica, California 1.8 mbps
Waikiki Beach, Hawaii 1.6 mbps
Newport Beach, California 1.2 mbps
Hermosa Beach, California 1.1 mbps
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Tags: beaches, hotels, wi-fi

Photo credit: Red Roof Inn has the fastest Wi-Fi connection of any U.S. hotel chain. Alan Ayers

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