jcresq

I have noticed over the past year or so that my biggest annoyances at hotel stays usually have something to do with housekeeping. Am I alone or have others noticed this? Here are the usual ones (and, yes, I get that these are "first world problems", but aren't most travel issues?):

1. Knocking on the door. My dnd sign is hanging from the doorknob. My deadbolt is locked. They pound on the door anyway. Then, a half hour later, no change in my status, they do it again. On a recent stay, in between housekeeping's knocks, room service knocked to pick up last night's dishes. And this always happens at an hour when one might reasonably be asleep (though in my case, it's generally that I'm on a business call).

2. Not making up the room. The flip side of this is they don't make up the room. I have frequently come back to my room mid-afternoon to find it not made up. Recently, I came back to my room at 9 pm and it was not made up (I complained and got points, but on the whole, would rather have not had to deal with dirty towels and an unmade bed after a long day).

3. The clocks are wrong. This drives me nuts, especially if I don't notice it until I'm rushing to get somewhere. And it's almost every stay (so my bad I guess). Often, the clock is an hour off, as if the time had never been changed to or from daylight saving. Sometimes, it's just some random time, as if the power had gone out and the clock wasn't reset. Couldn't housekeeping check this daily?

ajeleonard

I hear you, 1 & 2 are endless sources of irritation for me. It's like the tyranny of housekeeping.

As for 3, they have clocks in rooms still?

fassy

Often enough those annoying illuminated alarm clocks... one of the first thing which I shut down by pulling the plug - which kind of makes me one of those responsible for frustration #3

Skatering

I've just had one of these. The hotel I was in had poor housekeeping in general, but they were getting very passive aggressive about my towel use. I'm a woman, so I use two: one for my body, one for my hair. It was evident that I was using two and from my belongings that I was female.

I return to my room, find two towels taken away, only left with one. I go get more towels myself. The next day, both towels taken away, only one left for me.

Very unusual for me as I find housekeeping very efficient in general.

gwade

Worse...they "accidentally" turn the alarm on the clock radio on and the darn thing goes off at 4 in the morning!

wendyg

Yeah, I think the clock thing is usually because someone unplugged the clock to use the outlet it was plugged into. I never use the room clock, so it doesn't bother me.

As for housekeeping, I'm in the habit of putting out the Do Not Disturb sign and not taking it down until departure. I don't like people coming in and moving stuff around or remaking the bed just after I've finally gotten it comfortable.

wg

Skatering

Lack of outlets by the bed is a gripe for me, as I'm sure is for most in the smartphone generation.

No outlet, I'll find something to unplug, which is often the alarm clock.

mglvrug

I regularly find myself shaking my head over the prominent bathroom signs about conserving water by hanging up your towel if it doesn't need to be replaced. I almost always do that, since I don't change towels daily at home, either. In a total of three hotels over the past five years, they have left the lightly used towel for me to use again. Every other time, in hotels of many different chains, they ignore their own policy and give me a fresh towel. I know the sign is there mostly to impress environmentally-conscious customers, but still...

jcresq

Yeah, they still have the brightly lit clocks that are impossible to reset...maybe that's the problem?

jcresq

Lack of outlets in general is an issue for me...though a different topic! This week I was in a room where the desk was across the room from the tv, I wanted to plug my laptop into my tv, and there were no reachable outlets by the tv. So I used the laptop on battery until I couldn't.

KoKoBuddy

Is this seriously a thing about alarm clocks? I can't ever remember encountering an alarm clock I couldn't either turn off or reset if I needed to. It's an alarm clock people for crying out loud.

Proudelitist

My biggest gripe is how "Privacy Please" and "Do Not Disturb" are not actually respected.

If I leave the sign on the door, don't start calling to check that I really mean it. Don't slip passive aggressive letters under the door to remind me that I didn't have the room made up. It means LEAVE ME ALONE!!!

Just this past week a housekeeper knocked on the door to ask me if everything was OK because I had the DND sign on the door for 2 days.

My other gripe is about the in-room coffee. Why on earth is there decaf in there?? Worse, is when there is ONLY decaf..an event which has taken place on my travels more than once.

writerguyfl

Whenever I check into a hotel, I ask the Front Desk to put a "Do Not Disturb" on the phone line. You can also do this by dialing "zero" from your room. The hotel Operator should be able to accomplish that task quickly.

Doing that takes less than one minute and stops all calls (except emergency messages).

Some hotels are required by local law to conduct "welfare checks" if guests have no contact without a certain period. Although, two days seems short. In the hotels in which I worked, it was four days.

trooper

Im with wendyg... but I also tell the front desk I don't want the room serviced... (or only every 3rd day on a longer stay)..i like to settle in....

For those who put up the DND sign... but ALSO ..... about the room not being serviced..... Ummm.... do you see the problem there?

Annalisa12

Last Sofitel stay was attrocious. During a 5 day stay we had the room not made up numerous times, used cups put back on shelves so next time we went to use them we could tell they hadn't been washed and shampoo/conditioner not replenished. Housekeeping walked in on us in bed at 9 pm for a turn down service!!! It was one knock and enter the room as we were screaming out wait! Another time they walked in on me getting out of bed following an afternoon nap. The list goes on...