Here are my observations: 1. You, like me, are usually a late arrival. 2. Rooms are assigned starting around 2:00 pm. 3. I have watched the staff of several hotels start assigning rooms. There is not much thought given to the process that I can see since it looks like a blur of typing, dunking cards, and writing on the card covers. 4. Once the rooms have been assigned...tuff luck it you don’t like it.

It seems that after the rather random assignment of rooms there is a little flexibility. If all the desirable rooms are assigned the staff will have to "unassign" your room, a room of someone who hasn't checked in, and then reassign the rooms. As the day shortens there are fewer and fewer room left to shuffle so your chances of being reassign grow smaller.

I checked into a very nice JW at 3:00 pm and was given, literally, the elevator/ice machine/vending machine room on the concierge level. I went back to the front desk and politely asked for a different room that was "quiet". I received nearly the same room on a different floor which caused a second trip to the desk. This time I asked to see a map of the rooms and was told the only rooms left were like the ones I had been given (so the assignments were not random in that they tried to avoid assigning those rooms). I asked how that was possible since it was only 3:00 and was told it was because all of the rooms were assigned. I blew a gasket and politely recommended that some lesser soul than I be unassigned a room and I be given a better room. It took a manager to do it but I prevailed.

Do I have a "plat-i-tude"? I suppose, but 150 hotel nights per year will do that. I am sorry someone else gets that room but that room should not exist.

Another factor, when the hotel is "empty", seems to be grouping assigned rooms together to help out housekeeping.


If status is to mean anything it should be the ability to get the room you want no matter when you arrive. I try to keep it simple and only ask for two things a high floor and away from the elevator and vending machines. I don’t request a view, pillows, or bed type. I rarely get my request with out a second or third effort.