Recommended Free WiFi Hotels in London

It's hard to figure out which hotels offer complimentary WiFi to their guests ahead of booking... But we've done the hard work for you and painstakingly researched London hotels to list "the good guys". Below is our list of guest-friendly hotels (in alphabetical order) which provide this essential amenity. The list may not be comprehensive and we suggest you contact us if you spot any omissions; remember, we're interested in listing hotels that are well-regarded by their guests which also offer free WiFi. We have personally visited many of the hotels below.

Here then is a rundown of London Hotels with free WiFi (based on current information - remember though that this could change at any time):

- Andaz Hotel

- Apex City of London Hotel - this is a hotel we visited to test their WiFi (it works) - and our day was hijacked by playful rubber ducks!

- Apex London Wall Hotel

- Apex Temple Court Hotel

- Base2Stay Kensington - a free WiFi hotel offering the unique concept of "budget luxury." London Hotels Insight has visited the hotel several times

- The Bloomsbury Hotel (Doyle Collection)

- Chesterfield Mayfair - a 4 star luxury London hotel - we tested the immaculate free WiFi

- Claridge's - currently free though speculation they may start charging for WiFi

- Corinthia London

- DoubleTree by Hilton Tower of London - formally Mint Hotel Tower of London: there is speculation that they might soon start charging for WiFi under their new owners.

- DoubleTree by Hilton London-Westminster - formally Mint Westminster: there is speculation that they might soon start charging for WiFi under their new owners.

- Draycott Hotel

- Eccleston Square Hotel - a hotel that prides itself on being hi-tech, so no surprise that it apparently offers free WiFi

- Egerton House - a boutique Knightsbridge hotel with great 5 star service and free WiFi

- The Halkin

- Hotel Indigo

- Hotel 41 - a 5 star boutique hotel - we tested the free WiFi which works perfectly

- Hoxton Hotel

- The Kensington Hotel (Doyle Collection)

- The Lanesborough - London Hotels Insight bloggers have personally visited and checked the WiFi

- London Bridge Hotel - London Hotels Insight has checked the WiFi at this hotel's Quarter Bar and Restaurant

- Luna & Simone Hotel - a fairly cheap hotel near Victoria with free WiFi (though they inform us that access can be patchy from some rooms - do verify when you check in)

- Malmaison London

- The Marylebone Hotel (Doyle Collection)

- The May Fair Hotel - this hotel may be suitable for anyone seeking hip central London hotels and also offers Mayfair meeting rooms with free WiFi

- The Milestone Hotel - one of the best boutique hotels in Kensington - we've personally tested the free WiFi

- Montague on the Gardens - a top-rated 4 star boutique hotel where we tested the free WiFi for one day

- One Aldwych

- Radisson Edwardian Berkshire - one of the most luxurious hotels in Soho with friendly service

- Radisson Edwardian Bloomsbury Street - recently refurbished and one of the most contemporary hotels in Soho - also contains some stylish London conference venues due to its flexible, inspiring spaces. We visited and tested the free WiFi

- Radisson Edwardian Grafton - a favourite among those regularly frequenting 4 star hotels in London.

- Radisson Edwardian Hampshire - one of the most centrally-located 4 star hotels in London.

- Radisson Edwardian Heathrow - one of the few Heathrow airport hotels to offer free WiFi (we spent a day testing it) and known too for its Heathrow meeting rooms and gorgeous wedding venues near Heathrow as well as its versatile, modular spaces.

- Radisson Edwardian Kenilworth - just like all other 4 star hotels in London Radisson Edwardian hotels, this free WiFi hotel makes a special effort to be green and sustainable.

- Radisson Edwardian Leicester Square - its prime location makes it one of the most central London hotels.

- Radisson Edwardian Mercer Street was formerly the Mountbatten Hotel and has recently been extensively refurbished to become the discerning luxury hotel in Covent Garden for those in the know

- Radisson Edwardian New Providence Wharf - one of the most modern 4 star hotels in London - ideal for anyone seeking Canary Wharf meeting rooms

- Radisson Edwardian Sussex - one of the most centrally-located 4 star London hotels

- Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt - one of the most popular 4 star hotels in London.

- Radisson Edwardian Guildford - we personally visited this hotel (30 minutes by train from central London) which is one of the newest Guildford hotels and of special interest for anyone in the market for Surrey wedding venues. Relish restaurant (located inside the hotel and where we tested the free WiFi) is one of several restaurants in Guildford helping to cement the market town's growing reputation as a culinary destination (celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has a restaurant in the town too)

- Rafayel Hotel - an eco-friendly London hotel with free WiFi

- Rubens by the Palace - a luxury 4 star hotel where London Hotels Insight has checked the WiFi on site

- Yotel - with hotels at Heathrow and Gatwick airports

- Z Hotel Soho - a new "budget boutique" brand

- 45 Park Lane - the so-called "free WiFi" is subject to limits apparently; check before booking

The London Hotels Insight free WiFi campaign has been primarily aimed at hotels in the luxury sector, since their room rates are already expensive and providing such a basic amenity should be common sense to the management of a luxury hotel; the very concept of luxury suggests that guests will receive the best of everything. But the question arises: what about hotels in the budget sector? When will they provide free WiFi?

As a matter of fact, some budget chains have adopted a "limited" free WiFi approach in one form or another. As we've previously blogged about on London Hotels Insight, budget hotel chain Premier Inn now offers 30 minutes of free WiFi per day in all its UK hotels with additional access available at a reasonable cost. Similarly, Premier Inn's biggest competitor Travelodge has been offering free unlimited WiFi in all its Bar Cafes for almost a year now. Although Tune Hotels, highly-ranked in terms of customer satisfaction among the cheapest hotels in London, charges for WiFi due to its ethos as a "pay-as-you-use" hotel company, this charge is entirely transparent on the Tune Hotels website with WiFi access available for a fair price in its Liverpool Street and Westminster hotels. This transparency (which many expensive luxury hotels fail to provide) is one reason why we actually think budget hotels are generally more in tune with guest expectations about internet access than upscale hotels, even when they charge for WiFi.

With new budget hotels constantly raising the bar in terms of quality and customer satisfaction, the fact that some luxury hotels still think they can get away with concealing their steep WiFi charges becomes even more puzzling.

We started to lobby for this cause back in 2009 through our "Free The WiFi!" campaign and began by listing the very best "good guy" hotels with free WiFi - hotels that ranked well on TripAdvisor and had free WiFi too. We then wrote an open letter to the hospitality industry to try to influence hoteliers by showing them the shortsightedness of charging for WiFi.

We were blown away by the support from our readers, other travel bloggers and London hotels with a guest-friendly attitude which understand how their guests live today. It seems that even budget hotels now recognise that free WiFi access is a fundamental right - a claim backed up by a BBC survey which concluded that 4 out of 5 adults consider WiFi access to be as essential as access to basic infrastructure. Not to mention that a recent survey conducted among 53,000 travelers found that guests rate free WiFi as by far the most desired hotel amenity, even over a comfortable mattress or a good breakfast. So you'd think that some of the so-called "luxury" hotels which we've named and shamed, would start to get the point, especially now that even many cheap London hotels offer complimentary WiFi.

But in reality it seems many luxury hotels are not being transparent about their WiFi charges, since they probably know that publishing them would cause them to lose potential customers. This does though backfire in the end as annoyed guests will often leave negative TripAdvisor reviews commenting on this specific failing. In contrast to some of the most expensive 5 star London hotels which charge for WiFi, there are several cheaper 4 star hotels with free WiFi - and we recommend you stay with them instead.

We believe that the lack of transparency about WiFi charges is unfair on consumers. So in December 2011 we launched our Free WiFi Touchdown campaign, to showcase and promote the more progressive free WiFi hotels in London and to voice our demand that hotels which charge for WiFi at least display this information on their website.

The same issue for free WiFi applies to other cities as well and we are happy to support anyone who can come up with lists to promote free WiFi hotels. For example, we recently received a list of hotels with free WiFi in Brighton from one of our readers. Furthermore, we've also received news from a hospitality news website that several Liverpool hotels including Base2Stay Liverpool and others are also now supporting the free WiFi cause and offering this amenity to all guests at no extra charge.

Many of the world's most prestigious travel and hospitality blogs including Velvet Escape, Hotel Chatter and Elliot.org have supported our request that luxury hotels provide free WiFi - or at least be honest about their charges before any booking is made.

To stay abreast of the free hotel WiFi campaign and to read the latest inside info on the best London hotels, consult London Hotels Insight regularly. If you spot any inaccuracies on this lens or want to suggest other free WiFi hotels which we should add, please contact us. Thank you for supporting the campaign for free WiFi at luxury hotels!