Work out which kind of throttling you're dealing with first. A VPN beats throttling that targets specific apps (video, video calls, streaming sites), but nothing will beat a flat speed cap on your device or room, other than paying for the faster tier or using a different connection.
Step 1: Diagnose it
Run a speed test, then try a video stream. If the speed test is decent but Netflix or YouTube buffers, the network is probably shaping by traffic type. Researchers using the Wehe app found carriers capping video at roughly 1.5 to 4 Mbps while leaving other traffic alone, and hotel gateways can do the same. If everything is equally slow, you're on a per-device cap or the hotel's line is simply congested.
Step 2: Fix what's fixable
- App-based throttling: Connect a VPN such as NordVPN. The hotel can no longer tell video from email, so it can't single it out. Try a different protocol (NordLynx or OpenVPN TCP) if one is slow.
- Congestion: Use the network early in the morning or late at night, move closer to an access point, or ask for a room nearer the lobby. Switch to the 5 GHz band if the hotel broadcasts one.
- Per-device cap: Ask the front desk about the premium tier. Sometimes it's free for loyalty members, which is the honest way around it.
Step 3: Use your own connection
A phone hotspot or travel eSIM sidesteps the hotel entirely. Hotels can't legally jam it: the FCC has said blocking guests' personal hotspots is prohibited, after Marriott paid $600,000 over exactly that.
What not to do
Spoofing another guest's MAC address or using someone else's room login to grab their bandwidth is unauthorized access, not a clever hack.