Regarding the ethernet cable issue... I carry a small wireless ethernet access point with me and plug in... works like a champ and I get coverage all over the room. I figure if someone wants to do the work to break the WEP key just to share the connection, so be it. I also carry a small powerstrip with me, I KNOW I'm not gonna have enough outlets. It's thin, flat and takes up virtually no space in the suitcase. Add to that a roll-up phoneline (a 25ft retracting phone cord that fits in a cassette tape sized case... there's also an Ethernet version) and I don't have problems anymore when I stay in non-technology friendly hotels.

MY big annoyances :

* Slow roomservice : I hate it when I arrive at 12 AM, haven't had a chance to eat, and just want to get ANYTHING and go to sleep and it takes them an hour to get it up to me.

* Poor A/C : I like it cold, I also need lots of airflow to be comfortable. I HATE hotels (the Berkeley in London comes to mind) that have ancient piped ventilation systems... yes they may eventually reach a temperature that approximates what I want but the air is so still/stale in the room it drives me insane. Opening a window isn't an option in most hotels and invariably when it is there's 24 hr. traffic.

* Old and outdated furnishings : (Westin Oaks in Houston... one of the worst offenders, the Renaissance Greenway was but recently was very nicely redone) Nothing chaps me more than paying a stratospheric rack rate and checking into a room that hasn't seen a new bedspread since I was in diapers (I'm 29). I understand if it's a budget hotel or whatever but when I'm paying in the mid triple digits for a room in a property that's a prime location I expect better.

[This message has been edited by kanebear (edited 08-05-2002).]