I am a Canadian architect based in Toronto. We are compiling a survey on the most common design errors in hotels that really turn the guests off. Give me your 10 complaints. In return I will e you the total sutvey results in May 2003.
http://www.wgaarchitects.com/survey/survey.html

You might want to expand your query beyond the experiences of hotel guests....they rarely experience the entire building the way that employees do. Much of "what's wrong" in a design is never seen by a guest, as they rarely venture beyond their room, or the public facilities in the hotel.

Common problems include: Inadequate/non-existent storage space throughout the facility (most common on guest floors), inadequate/non-existent freight/employee elevators, poorly designed front desk location as it relates to elevators, inadequate parking facilities for guest, meeting attendee and employee needs, placing meeting facilities in an akward locations (not easily found, which creates a non stop headache for guests and employees), poor or nonexistent signage, inadequate management office space, poor restaurant design, inadequate pool/health club capacity, failure to integrate with the city's mass transit system, and failure to think through deliveries, trash removal and dirty linen logistics.

rrz518:
I've been doing this survey for the past 10 years mainly aimed at hoteliers. I've got plenty of their input. Now I want to hear from the guests. Your comments are appreciated.

Henry,
Marriott Courtyard systemwide, places a night table between the bed and the hallway that leads to the bathroom. The table is flush to hall so you can't take a shortcut to get to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You have to wake up and think about it or turn on the light or you risk smashing your knee into the table, which happened to me. I complained about it and got 20% off the bill. They said that this the way all the units are designed, and it's true. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has had this happen to them.

Is this the kind of information you are looking for?

Yes, Brattflyer. This is exactly what I'm looking for. I'll be designing a Courtyard in a few months. I haven't seen such casegood arrangement in their design standard, but I'll watch out for it.
As we grow older, we need to go to the bathrooms in the middle of the night. And we don't want to wake up too much to do the business lest we copuldn't fall back to sleep. What we need is a moon-light intensity nightlight in the bathroom to lead us there via a safe route without smashing our knees or stubbing our toes.

No exhaust fans in the bathroom is my biggest pet peeve!!

I agree about the bathroom fans.... I stayed at a very high end hotel in early March... and was on the Entre Gold floor.

There was NO fan in the bathroom ... if you had a shower, the whole place was steamy, and the large mirror fogged up.

Also, if there is no fan in the bathroom, they should leave air freshner in there.. I even asked the conceirge desk across from our room if there was any air freshner. He enquired and was told no there was not... how embarrassing to make a guest ask and then be told no.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by nbkob74:
No exhaust fans in the bathroom is my biggest pet peeve!!</font>
A NOISY exhaust fan is my biggest pet peeve. I sometimes shut off the light just to stop the whining of the motor. Some must have come up with a quiet fan motor by now http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif.

Mary

Noisy exhaust fans.
Indaequate lighting throughout the room.
Inconvenient outlets, and not enough of them.
Inadequate soundproofing- I don't want to hear people next door having sex... there's OnCommand for that. http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/wink.gif I also don't want to hear housekeeping, guests, or anyone else in the hallway.

I still can't find a silent exhaust fan.
The new breed of guest bathrooms are larger. Humidity build-up is less of a problem.
The small bathrooms are bad. Most people use the bathroom with the door open when they travel alone. If the fan is not strong enough, the steam buil-up may trigger the smoke alarm in the foyer.
The fan and the light should be on two circuits, so that you won't wake up your spouse when you take your midnight bathroom trips.

Hotel Windows that do not open to at least allow some ventilation and so that there is an option to heating/air conditioning. I realize this increases the noise level in the room but often during the day I wouldn't mind that for some "fresh air".

You are apt to find fixed windows in hotels built prior to the 90's - and that means the overwhelming majority. It was a design tradition at the time. When I went to architecture school in the 70's I was taught not to provide operable windows as it would screw up the building heating and cooling system. But in hotels each room has its own separate fan coil unit or incremental unit, and the door is always closed. It wouldn't knock off the main HVAC balance.

No conveniently located master light switch to control lights from the bed.

The central control panel by the bed is common in Europe and Asia by tradition. Some newer hotels in North America such as 4 Seasons provide same. The wiring is expensive which is the reason why most North American hotels don't have it. It's a nice feature. Not too many guests ask for it, and therefore chains don't provide it.

Remote control light operation is a cheap(er) alternative.

You mean like a beeper? Haven't seen one of those.

I would like to see better lighting. The Wyndam is using some kind of new lighting throughout the rooms and you can hardly see, mostly using 40 watt bulbs. There are many women business travelers out there who need light to put their makeup on buy instead of a half-lit room. Heating and air conditioning ducts to to be positioned so there is an alternative to the way air is circulated through out the room. Make a quieter room where drapes will actually come together when pulled shut. It is tough when you want to get some sleep and the light creeps through in the early am, after you get off an 18 hour flight or an outside light shines through the crack of the drapes at night and keeps you awake. Better ventilation systems throughout the hotel. I don't want to have to smell what the restaurant downstairs burned or the smell of cigarette smoke from the floor underneath me. More efficient elevators. While staying at a Westin on 3 different occasions, they had 4 elevators and only 2 of them worked and the hotel was sold out. The wait time was over 15 minutes and they were jam packed with people.Pretty scary. Find an appropriate heighth for a toilet. Some toilets are just downright uncomfortable and way too high. I am not a 7 footer here.

Toilets are pretty much at standard height. Are you sure you didn't use the handicapped toilet stalls? They have slightly higher seats.

I am quite certain that I was not in a handicap room. I have exp. this on two different stays at a Hilton and a Marriot.
I was surprised as well as I was thinking toilet heighths were all standard.
Something I did notice was that the actual bowl was attached to the wall and not the floor.

BluMing:
Standard toilet bowls in N. America have a rim height of 14"-15 1/2". It’s a little low.

In catering to the aging Baby Boomers and the seniors higher seats are preferred as it makes it easier for them to get in and out and to defecate without muscle strain. Health professionals recommend 16"-18" height, which is the height of standard seating. 19" is a little high.

Floor-mount are fool-proof. Wall-mounted toilets, however, can be mounted too high if the contractor doesn’t know what he is doing.

In general toilets in Europe are mounted higher than in N. America, but should not be over 19".

[This message has been edited by henryw (edited 06-12-2002).]

No more towel racks over the toilets (splash!)

SteveH

You're right. Nobody likes it there. However, the hotels don't have much of a choice. Within the confine of a 6X8 bathroom there are only two locations on the walls that are within reach of the bather.

In the past many hotels used to mount the towel rack in the tub surround opposite the shower head, up high. Well, people do slip and fall in the tubs. And as they go down they grab whatever they can reach, i.e. the towel racks. The racks are designed to support towels and not a 150 lb person. They come off the wall and the bathers fall back into the tub hurting their spines. Then the hotels get sued for mounting something that’s grabable and within reach of the falling bathers, and which is not safe to be grabbed. In order to avoid any liability, the hotels all moved the racks out to the only wall left – above the toilet.

You may also see some soap holders fitted with a grab handle. That’s another problematic fixture for the same reason. Most chains already decommissioned them.