What Are Your Top Hotel Pet Peeves, 2012 Edition
May 15, 2012, 8:21 pm
#166
Join Date: Aug 2011
Posts: 154
Maybe your friend should print up a bunch of notes saying, "Please leave the phone on the bed as I cannot reach it if you place it on the table." and tape one to the phone (each day, if necessary).
May 15, 2012, 8:52 pm
#167
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Biloxi, MS (GPT)
Programs: AA Gold, DL FO, HH Diamond
Posts: 1,278
I hate to say this, but I can't really blame housekeeping for moving the phone. If someone directed me to clean a room, the first thing I would do is take a phone off the bed and put it back on the table ("where it belongs").
Maybe your friend should print up a bunch of notes saying, "Please leave the phone on the bed as I cannot reach it if you place it on the table." and tape one to the phone (each day, if necessary).
Maybe your friend should print up a bunch of notes saying, "Please leave the phone on the bed as I cannot reach it if you place it on the table." and tape one to the phone (each day, if necessary).
I'll add to the pet peeve list: Having to leave a note for housekeeping on a daily basis to make an exception to their daily checklist (such as replacing the duvet (that I HATE and NEVER USE) on the bed every day of my stay, or moving the desk back to its original position after I've relocated it to face the TV). Letting them know once, or letting the management know so that the message can be conveyed to housekeeping about my room for the duration of my stay, should be sufficient.
May 15, 2012, 10:05 pm
#168
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Los Angeles
Programs: UA 1K, Amex Platinum, Regus Gold, Chase Mileage Plus Visa, Turkish Air Elite, US Passport Glob. Entl
Posts: 43
My No. 1 Hotel Problem
If you are at least a 3 star hotel and advertise in room internet, it has to be reliable. I rarely complain about anything else, and am otherwise the ultimate low maintenance hotel guest.
May 16, 2012, 11:15 am
#170
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 1
Generally, I am pretty happy with USA hotels. I agree with one responder about pillows. 6 - 8? Really? I would be very happy with one or two that were designed for sleeping (head/neck support) and not there to be pretty.
The hotels charge a rate. I agree. I pay. Should be the end of story, unless I want room service or laundry done. DON'T charge me if I move an item on the "honor bar." Hotels are taking a page out of the airline book. "Once you get them in the room/plane, charge them for everything you can think of!"
The hotels charge a rate. I agree. I pay. Should be the end of story, unless I want room service or laundry done. DON'T charge me if I move an item on the "honor bar." Hotels are taking a page out of the airline book. "Once you get them in the room/plane, charge them for everything you can think of!"
May 16, 2012, 11:26 am
#171
Join Date: Jun 2009
Programs: Aeroplan, Delta, HHonors, Priority Club
Posts: 6
Hotel Pet Peeves
I have 2 PPs. One is charging for bottled water - I mean really. I find I'm thirsty when I travel and like to have water first thing in the morning. Yet hotels insist on charging and often charging too much for bottled water.
Wi-fi charges. This is just pure gouging IMHO. The hotel already has high-speed internet services for it's own use. The extra cost to provide wi-fi is zero so there's no need to charge.
Happy trails
Wi-fi charges. This is just pure gouging IMHO. The hotel already has high-speed internet services for it's own use. The extra cost to provide wi-fi is zero so there's no need to charge.
Happy trails
May 16, 2012, 11:27 am
#172
Join Date: Sep 2011
Posts: 5
My biggest pet peeve is arriving in the hotel room only to find hair in the bathroom (sink, floor, tub, etc). Just grosses me out.
May 16, 2012, 11:29 am
#173
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 175
1. Lack of in-room safe in many hotels - really inconvenient to have to leave valuables at front desk.
2. Locating desk in front of HVAC unit. Can't sit at desk while unit is blowing cold air on your shoulder - really poor layout.
2. Locating desk in front of HVAC unit. Can't sit at desk while unit is blowing cold air on your shoulder - really poor layout.
May 16, 2012, 11:29 am
#174
Join Date: Jul 2005
Posts: 14
I just want to get some sleep.
My primary reason for getting a room is to sleep. I can ignore a lot if the room is quiet and dark and the bed and pillows are comfortable.
Uncomfortable beds, crappy pillows, too much light and noise are my most hated problems.
Why are some hotels going to half size pillows? They suck! I hate it when I can hear doors in the hallway slamming. Why do hotels put couples on floors with the soccer teams and wedding reception guests?
Besides avoiding smoking rooms, I also don't want to be in a room where previous guests have brought their pets.
Plumbing that doesn't drain in either the sink or shower is ridiculous. Why should I be responsible for reporting maintenance issues.
Load or badly functioning AC units.
Every hotel manager should spend at least one night a year in every room of the hotel.
Uncomfortable beds, crappy pillows, too much light and noise are my most hated problems.
Why are some hotels going to half size pillows? They suck! I hate it when I can hear doors in the hallway slamming. Why do hotels put couples on floors with the soccer teams and wedding reception guests?
Besides avoiding smoking rooms, I also don't want to be in a room where previous guests have brought their pets.
Plumbing that doesn't drain in either the sink or shower is ridiculous. Why should I be responsible for reporting maintenance issues.
Load or badly functioning AC units.
Every hotel manager should spend at least one night a year in every room of the hotel.
May 16, 2012, 11:29 am
#175
Join Date: Aug 2004
Posts: 6
What about these?
So many that irk me are missing from the poll.
I've come to imagine what hotel operators must think in designing and maintaining hotel rooms. If there is a meeting, it goes something like this:
"First, let's put cards up reminding guests to reuse towels so that we all can 'help save the environment,' and then let's make sure there are no hooks to hang the towels on."
"Better yet, let's have hooks, but we'll put the bathrobes on them, so they can't be used for the towels."
"Yes, and if they find a place to hang the towels, then when we come through with housekeeping let's fold the towels back up, so the guest can't tell which they've already used."
"And don't forget the sheets. We'll tell them we'll only replace them every other day to 'save the environment...'"
"...but we'll waste more energy by setting every air conditioner to freeze the rooms to 60 degrees."
"And we'll put in a contraption that requires the room key to be inserted for there to be power in the room, so that when the guest leaves the room there is no way to recharge electronic equipment. Which doesn't matter because we'll fill all the outlets with plugs for our stuff, so they can't plug anything in anyway."
"How about just leaving one bar of soap in the bathroom and providing shower gel? Of course, neither the shower gel, nor the shampoo and conditioner will be in the shower. We'll put those on the sink, where they're not needed."
"People might expect us to have liquid hand soap by the sink and a real bar of soap in the shower, but let's do the reverse."
"When the guest comes in the room, let's make sure that every flat surface is covered with pamphlets, tents, and magazines -- whatever we can find -- so that there is no clear spot for them to put anything down."
"And when we clean the room after they've moved all that stuff to the side, we'll put it right back where it was."
"And make it impossible for them to get into bed because we'll put the breakfast menu on the pillow."
"One more thing: Let's make sure every lamp has a switch in an entirely different place, so there's no way the guest can turn them on. If they do figure it out, we'll punish them by only having bulbs that emit a tiny amount of light."
"Perfect. We need to keep them in the dark. Cold and dark."
I've come to imagine what hotel operators must think in designing and maintaining hotel rooms. If there is a meeting, it goes something like this:
"First, let's put cards up reminding guests to reuse towels so that we all can 'help save the environment,' and then let's make sure there are no hooks to hang the towels on."
"Better yet, let's have hooks, but we'll put the bathrobes on them, so they can't be used for the towels."
"Yes, and if they find a place to hang the towels, then when we come through with housekeeping let's fold the towels back up, so the guest can't tell which they've already used."
"And don't forget the sheets. We'll tell them we'll only replace them every other day to 'save the environment...'"
"...but we'll waste more energy by setting every air conditioner to freeze the rooms to 60 degrees."
"And we'll put in a contraption that requires the room key to be inserted for there to be power in the room, so that when the guest leaves the room there is no way to recharge electronic equipment. Which doesn't matter because we'll fill all the outlets with plugs for our stuff, so they can't plug anything in anyway."
"How about just leaving one bar of soap in the bathroom and providing shower gel? Of course, neither the shower gel, nor the shampoo and conditioner will be in the shower. We'll put those on the sink, where they're not needed."
"People might expect us to have liquid hand soap by the sink and a real bar of soap in the shower, but let's do the reverse."
"When the guest comes in the room, let's make sure that every flat surface is covered with pamphlets, tents, and magazines -- whatever we can find -- so that there is no clear spot for them to put anything down."
"And when we clean the room after they've moved all that stuff to the side, we'll put it right back where it was."
"And make it impossible for them to get into bed because we'll put the breakfast menu on the pillow."
"One more thing: Let's make sure every lamp has a switch in an entirely different place, so there's no way the guest can turn them on. If they do figure it out, we'll punish them by only having bulbs that emit a tiny amount of light."
"Perfect. We need to keep them in the dark. Cold and dark."
May 16, 2012, 11:37 am
#176
Join Date: Dec 2011
Programs: UA 1P
Posts: 545
So many that irk me are missing from the poll.
I've come to imagine what hotel operators must think in designing and maintaining hotel rooms. If there is a meeting, it goes something like this:
"First, let's put cards up reminding guests to reuse towels so that we all can 'help save the environment,' and then let's make sure there are no hooks to hang the towels on."
"Better yet, let's have hooks, but we'll put the bathrobes on them, so they can't be used for the towels."
"Yes, and if they find a place to hang the towels, then when we come through with housekeeping let's fold the towels back up, so the guest can't tell which they've already used."
"And don't forget the sheets. We'll tell them we'll only replace them every other day to 'save the environment...'"
"...but we'll waste more energy by setting every air conditioner to freeze the rooms to 60 degrees."
"And we'll put in a contraption that requires the room key to be inserted for there to be power in the room, so that when the guest leaves the room there is no way to recharge electronic equipment. Which doesn't matter because we'll fill all the outlets with plugs for our stuff, so they can't plug anything in anyway."
"How about just leaving one bar of soap in the bathroom and providing shower gel? Of course, neither the shower gel, nor the shampoo and conditioner will be in the shower. We'll put those on the sink, where they're not needed."
"People might expect us to have liquid hand soap by the sink and a real bar of soap in the shower, but let's do the reverse."
"When the guest comes in the room, let's make sure that every flat surface is covered with pamphlets, tents, and magazines -- whatever we can find -- so that there is no clear spot for them to put anything down."
"And when we clean the room after they've moved all that stuff to the side, we'll put it right back where it was."
"And make it impossible for them to get into bed because we'll put the breakfast menu on the pillow."
"One more thing: Let's make sure every lamp has a switch in an entirely different place, so there's no way the guest can turn them on. If they do figure it out, we'll punish them by only having bulbs that emit a tiny amount of light."
"Perfect. We need to keep them in the dark. Cold and dark."
I've come to imagine what hotel operators must think in designing and maintaining hotel rooms. If there is a meeting, it goes something like this:
"First, let's put cards up reminding guests to reuse towels so that we all can 'help save the environment,' and then let's make sure there are no hooks to hang the towels on."
"Better yet, let's have hooks, but we'll put the bathrobes on them, so they can't be used for the towels."
"Yes, and if they find a place to hang the towels, then when we come through with housekeeping let's fold the towels back up, so the guest can't tell which they've already used."
"And don't forget the sheets. We'll tell them we'll only replace them every other day to 'save the environment...'"
"...but we'll waste more energy by setting every air conditioner to freeze the rooms to 60 degrees."
"And we'll put in a contraption that requires the room key to be inserted for there to be power in the room, so that when the guest leaves the room there is no way to recharge electronic equipment. Which doesn't matter because we'll fill all the outlets with plugs for our stuff, so they can't plug anything in anyway."
"How about just leaving one bar of soap in the bathroom and providing shower gel? Of course, neither the shower gel, nor the shampoo and conditioner will be in the shower. We'll put those on the sink, where they're not needed."
"People might expect us to have liquid hand soap by the sink and a real bar of soap in the shower, but let's do the reverse."
"When the guest comes in the room, let's make sure that every flat surface is covered with pamphlets, tents, and magazines -- whatever we can find -- so that there is no clear spot for them to put anything down."
"And when we clean the room after they've moved all that stuff to the side, we'll put it right back where it was."
"And make it impossible for them to get into bed because we'll put the breakfast menu on the pillow."
"One more thing: Let's make sure every lamp has a switch in an entirely different place, so there's no way the guest can turn them on. If they do figure it out, we'll punish them by only having bulbs that emit a tiny amount of light."
"Perfect. We need to keep them in the dark. Cold and dark."
May 16, 2012, 11:38 am
#177
Join Date: Nov 2010
Posts: 627
- The bed sheets are always scratchy. When my wife and I buy bed sheets, we always give them a trip through the washer and dryer to soften them up; hotel bed sheets feel fresh off the Walmart check-out line. My personal favorite bed sheets are 100% cotton "T-shirt"-like material.
- Thermostats. In a lot of hotels, the "thermostat" has no mode switch; only a temperature control. The problem with this? You arrive in your room, and the previous occupant had the thermostat set to 70F, which is uncomfortably cold for you, since it's the middle of freaking summer and 90+F outside. You set the thermostat to 78F, which is nice and comfortable for you. A proper thermostat should see this as "do nothing until the ambient temperature reaches 78F".
But some hotel thermostats? Nope. They see this as "turn on the electric resistance heater until the room reaches 78F". I can't imagine how much this adds to hotels' electric bills.
- Hot water. At home, my water heater is set to 120F, which allows me to put my hand directly under a full-hot stream with zero risk of burns. When I'm starting the shower at a hotel, I should not be prepared to yank my hand out from under the stream to avoid a serious burn.
This is a very, very serious issue, and I'm surprised hotels' insurance carriers haven't raised a fit about it. The hot water in most hotels is dangerously hot, and aside from costing a small fortune to keep the water this hot, they're practically setting themselves up to have their pants sued off after a very young or elderly guest receives a serious burn.
- Finally, stairs that are either in an inconvenient location or go straight outside to prevent their use for anything other than an emergency exit. If I'm staying on the second floor of a hotel and I'm not carrying any luggage down for breakfast, I might _want_ to use the stairs.
- The radio. Yes; it's nice that the room has a TV with a choice of 299,792,458 HD channels. And I could listen to the "radio" on my smartphone via Pandora/last.fm/whatever. But what if we want to take in the local radio stations? The in-room clock/radio is typically a $9 Walmart radio with a useless analog tuner. I want something with a digital tuner and seek buttons, so I can more easily scan the local airwaves. While you're at it, can someone please design an alarm clock that automatically syncs its time via wi-fi or Ethernet? While I always use my phone as my alarm clock, but I don't like getting into bed and staring down a clock that's 30 minutes off.
- Bathroom ventilation. At home, my bathroom has a 80 CFM exhaust fan that's relatively quiet and, when running, means no mirror fog, even after a long shower. Some hotels have a central bathroom-fan system that's inadequate, some just have fans that re-circulate the humid air in the bathroom, and I once saw one with a resistor in line with the fan to slow it down to reduce noise--and effectiveness.
Last edited by mahohmei; May 16, 2012 at 12:36 pm
May 16, 2012, 11:40 am
#178
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 6
Recognition
My biggest hotel complaint is that the consistency is gone from most places I stay, almost exclusively Marriott brands:
I am almost never recognized or greeted as a Platinum Premier and/or Lifetime Platinum member.
Upgraded rooms happen from time to time but with a bit of begging.
Room preferences are generally ignored if I am not paying RACK rate.
Using points for a stay seems to make me less of an honored guest.
And, the rooms themselves often are lacking in the items that I have asked for in my profile, extra pillows, refrigerator among them.
In a large company it must be difficult to manage all property's behavior but I would hope that the most loyal customers would be treated better than this.
I am almost never recognized or greeted as a Platinum Premier and/or Lifetime Platinum member.
Upgraded rooms happen from time to time but with a bit of begging.
Room preferences are generally ignored if I am not paying RACK rate.
Using points for a stay seems to make me less of an honored guest.
And, the rooms themselves often are lacking in the items that I have asked for in my profile, extra pillows, refrigerator among them.
In a large company it must be difficult to manage all property's behavior but I would hope that the most loyal customers would be treated better than this.
May 16, 2012, 11:45 am
#179
Join Date: Aug 2009
Programs: CO - Platinum, SPG - Lifetime Platinum, US - Chairman, Hilton - Diamond, Marriott - Silver
Posts: 12
Top 5 Hotel Pet Peeves
1) stench of cigarette (or pot-aka vegetarian fart) wafting into room.
2) Room by elevator shaft - hearing that thing go all night sucks.
3) flimsy walls- hearing neighbor watch tv/burp/cough/fornicate/relieve bowels/talk on phone / leave TV at highest decibel level etc etc etc.
4) Housekeepers slamming doora shut at ungodly morning hours. I get it, you are up early, cleaning rooms- QUIT LETTING THE DOOR SLAM OVER AND OVER AGAIN
5) Parking fees- at this rate, ill have the car sleep in the room with me. Rates are slowly creaping up to obnoxious in some hotels...
2) Room by elevator shaft - hearing that thing go all night sucks.
3) flimsy walls- hearing neighbor watch tv/burp/cough/fornicate/relieve bowels/talk on phone / leave TV at highest decibel level etc etc etc.
4) Housekeepers slamming doora shut at ungodly morning hours. I get it, you are up early, cleaning rooms- QUIT LETTING THE DOOR SLAM OVER AND OVER AGAIN
5) Parking fees- at this rate, ill have the car sleep in the room with me. Rates are slowly creaping up to obnoxious in some hotels...
May 16, 2012, 11:46 am
#180
Join Date: Sep 1999
Location: Arlington VA
Programs: ex-platinum/gold for many years on most all US carriers until 911 when I started avoiding flying.
Posts: 189
- Taking extra time to check in because the desk clerk keeps answering the phone. The phone should NEVER preempt a person to person interaction.
- Low wattage light bulbs
- HVAC systems that flow air into the drapes so the drapes never close
- Having to pay for WiFi
- Being limited to one WiFi connection. Most folks have a smart phone AND a laptop or iPad these days.
- Lack of sufficient and accessible electrical outlets at the desk and by the night stands. Having to pull the bed out to to get to an outlet is ridiculous.
- Low wattage light bulbs
- HVAC systems that flow air into the drapes so the drapes never close
- Having to pay for WiFi
- Being limited to one WiFi connection. Most folks have a smart phone AND a laptop or iPad these days.
- Lack of sufficient and accessible electrical outlets at the desk and by the night stands. Having to pull the bed out to to get to an outlet is ridiculous.