Every stay we list carries a Wi-Fi reading. This is the fine print behind the badges on the city pages: where each reading comes from, what we throw out, what we cannot tell you, and how we get paid.

Where the number comes from

A stay card shows one Wi-Fi chip — 504 Mbps when we have a number, Fast Internet when the evidence was a phrase without one. A small mark beside it names the source:

  • ✓ verified — Airbnb's own in-listing speed test, published as a line like “Fast wifi – 504 Mbps”. The only source we did not have to read out of prose.
  • 💬 in review — a guest wrote a speed, or a phrase like fiber or fast wifi, in a review of that listing.
  • ✎ host-declared — it appears only in the listing title or description. Nobody has checked it.

Each stay gets exactly one reading: the first source carrying an actual number, in the order above, and failing that the first carrying a phrase. A number beats a phrase even from a less trusted place.

What we throw out

Readings above 1500 Mbps, which are almost always a gigabit misparse — one city averaged 3751 Mbps off a handful of them before we put the ceiling in. And the word “connection”: in Airbnb reviews it overwhelmingly means transit, not internet.

The real workspace badge

Not the Airbnb amenity checkbox. We run an object-detection model over the listing photos, keep only detections at 0.85 confidence or above, and a person reviews every survivor. Two limits: it detects chairs, not desks, and we have not run it over every listing — which is why the city pages give it as a count out of those actually checked, not a percentage.

What we cannot tell you

  • The speed on your dates. Every reading describes a moment in the past. Nothing on a city page is live, and we cannot test the line before you book.
  • The host's plan or hardware. Not the contracted speed, the router, or how many apartments share the line.
  • Whether the evidence is recent. A review from four years ago and one from last month look the same to the parser.

How we make money

The buttons on a stay card are affiliate links — assume we earn a commission if you book through one. They do not decide which stays are listed, and any sort you choose ignores them entirely. They do set the default “Recommended” order: stays with a Booking or Vrbo link sit above those without, and the Top pick ribbons follow from that. Sort by Wi-Fi to see the ranking without it.