Hotel room work areas. It's really rather simple: at the desk, there needs to be an easily-accessible power outlet, ethernet connection with a cord long enough to reach a laptop in the obvious position on the desk, and a telephone with speakerphone with a cord long enough to be on the desk next to the laptop.

That seems to me to be an obvious minimum configuration for a work desk in a hotel room. Often times, they'll provide some but not all of the items. This seems strange to me for a couple of reasons: first of all, it's clear that they intended the area to be used as a work desk, but don't bother to provide all the needed items - it's almost as if the person designing the room never travels on business themselves. Second, it would be very easy and relatively inexpensive to provide all of the items. For example, if there is not a phone outlet near the desk and/or they only want to provide one phone on the nightstand, then just put a cord on it long enough that you can move it to the desk if need be. I can understand when they don't want to put expensive amenities in every room, but when they skip over simple and inexpensive ways to make the room functional, it's very disappointing.