I'm going on a bit of a rant here, please indulge me.

Let me say that I'm only 42, I'm not a luddite, and technology does not normally scare me. I even have a mobile phone that tells time and takes photos and everything, though admittedly I still occasionally take photos of the inside of my pants pocket.

I've been staying in a lot of hotels over the last year or so, and I've noticed a trend in the newly constructed hotels, especially Hiltons and Hyatts. Instead of having simple light switch when you enter the room, or the bathroom, etc. a lot of hotel rooms now have these little master lighting control panels on the wall or beside the bed. Usually it's a little silver square panel with about four buttons on it, and then (in non-illuminated typeface) a designation under each button telling you what light that button turns on.

I hate this lighting setup for a number of reasons. I'm currently at the new-ish Hilton Sukhumvit in Bangkok, and the lighting is set up so that as soon as you walk into the room and put your card in the slot to turn on the power, the lighting defaults to "turn on every light in the freaking room."

I just came back from breakfast, the curtains are open, and you know how many lights I wanted turned on? Zero. In the evening, I may want one or two lights on. But if I enter the room and want to watch TV or enjoy air conditioning I have to put my card in the slot, then every light in the room comes on, and I have spend the next five minutes playing the "what button turns off this light" game.

One of the little panels here has four buttons labeled "entry, living, minibar, slot." What the heck is slot? Another panel offers buttons for "slot, downlight, closet, and master (living room)." If your lighting offerings include parentheses, they are too complicated. And impossible to read in the dark. Also, why would anyone need to turn on the closet light if they were standing anywhere other than the closet? Why would hotels that cater to visitors of all nationalities require them to read English words like "downlight" and "slot" in order to work the lights?

I got up this morning, walked to the bathroom and just wanted to turn on a single light so I could see the toilet and aim properly. I have a large bathroom in my room here, and all kinds of lights in the bathroom, but there isn't a single lighting button in the suite marked "bathroom."

In a normal world, there would be simple switch at the bathroom entrance that turns on a light. Not with this system. As far as I can tell, the ONLY way to turn on the bathroom light is to somehow, in the dark, to find, read and press the non-illuminated button labeled "master (living room)" which turns on about 19 different lights throughout the bedroom, bathroom, and living room.

Once I was so befuddled by one of these new fangled lighting systems that I had to call the front desk at 2:30 a.m. to send someone up to turn off a light that would not turn off no matter how many buttons I pressed. I was a little embarrassed by this, because I was somewhat drunk and figured that was why I couldn't figure out how to turn off the light. They sent a guy up, he came in, hit some buttons, the light wouldn't go off, so he opened the breaker box in the closet and flipped the corresponding breaker to turn off that light.

Does anyone like these lighting panels, As far as I'm concerned, the hassle of figuring out how to work these lights and the annoyance of turning off every light in the room after they automatically come on far outweighs any convenience a guest might enjoy from being able to turn off the minibar light from his bed.