Hotel alarm clocks going off - what's reasonable?
 

On Friday, whilst checking out of a Hilton hotel (name held back to protect the guilty), there was a very distressed woman at reception complaining about how the hotel-provided alarm clock in her room had gone off several times during the night. She hadn't been able to work out how to turn it off, and due to the design / security features hadn't even been able to unplug it. Due to that, she hadn't had much sleep. The hotel in question has recently replaced their clock radio/speaker/alarms with the small cube clock/alarms that I'm seeing in more and more Hiltons. Unlike the old ones, these new ones are firmly fixed down, and can't (easily) be unplugged

In the past, I've been awoken by the old-style Hilton alarm clocks, which I've been unable to turn off in a groggy state, but I have been able to silence by pulling the power cord out of the back. Luckily I haven't had the new ones go off yet, but they look much harder to power down in the middle of the night, which matches what the lady complaining on Friday faced

My view is that housekeeping should be ensuring that the alarm is turned off when they're cleaning the room, as they have a whole bunch of identical alarms that they can learn to check/disable quickly. With the variety of alarm clocks out there, especially between chains, it shouldn't really be up to guests to check they're off (if they can work out how), and sadly too easy for a departing guest to forgot to turn the alarm off / think they have but fail to. Especially at airport hotels, where you might be dashing off in a hurry very early

The last time I had a hilton alarm clock go off in the night, where I was able to pull the power out, I complained about that and a few other service failings there, and got a generic "sorry we weren't up to normal standards" and a $50 gift card. No actual comment on the alarm clock situation.

On Friday, the distressed woman was pushing for that night and the next night to be free, which I thought was maybe a bit much. The reception staff were very shocked that it had happened, seemed genuinely to care, but were only offering her to comp that night. I left before hearing a resolution.

What's the general view here on alarm clocks? Should the hotel be being diligent on turning them off? And what's fair to ask for if they get it wrong, to not penalise a good hotel that makes the odd mistake, but does force badly behaved hotels to sort themselves out?

Two nights free for an alarm clock is taking it a bit far IMO, you have to admire her for trying though. If I were the manager of the hotel it would be points and 10k would be the limit. If it had went off on me and I couldn't get it to switch off properly on the second occasion that it went off I'd call down and ask how it's done or ask for someone to switch it off.

As for the alarm clocks I don't know why they still put them in the rooms. Most hotel telephone systems are capable of letting you programme a wake up as are the televisions whilst the vast majority of us have a phone or tablet with an alarm.

If they are there though they should be cleared down and reset by housekeeping when guests changeover.

Should the hotel staff shut off the alarm clock before the next guest? Yes.

Should the lady be comped two night for one night's worth of problems? Heck no!! IMHO, she is being very opportunistic.

I like the new cube-style alarm clocks in that they can be FULLY dimmed (zero lighting) which obviates my traditional reason for needing unplug/hide the clocks. That said, I can't say that I've encountered any that have been bolted down or impossible to unplug, as the OP mentions. Of course, I am very willing to move furniture to unplug things...

Have had the same experience of the alarms going off at unearthly hours, obviously set by the previous guest. I now check to make sure the alarm is off or set to my required time. However, I have noticed more recently how often the time is incorrect on these cube clocks and have yet to find a way to set the correct time. Housekeeping should certainly be checking the time is correct, but this doesn't seem to be happening. Keep meaning to inform Front Desk!

I would have laughed in her face and suggested that she might be happier elsewhere. I

Normal adults who care about this stuff turn off the alarm clock, unplug it or call and ask for help if they can't figure it out.

If she is too incompetent to figure out how to change the alarm then she doesn't deserve any compensation IMHO. BTW, I've spent a 100-125 hotel nights per year over the past decade. I've never run into this problem.

Do these clocks have mp3 jacks? That was the feature I actually used on the Hilton clocks.

I use an alarm clock at home. Not having one at a hotel would be a major issue for me.

What happens if you misplace your phone or forget your charger? How would you even know what time it was without an alarm clock?

My preference I suppose, however who has a major issue not having one would more than likely have a travel one (many of which are the size of a salt & pepper pot and weigh next to nothing) in their carry on luggage. If they were that reliant on one they would have their own rather than run the risk of finding one that doesn't work.

How would you know what time it was? I'm guessing probably by looking at your watch or switching the TV to the news channel.

If you misplace your phone then yes you have an issue. A replacement charger is easy to pick up. Not ideal but far from the end of the world if you can set a wake up via the room phone or the TV.

A lot of hotel TVs now show the time as they double up as the alarm even the phone in the room I'm sitting in now has a time panel on it. The hotel could also keep some at reception and supply on request if required.

By all means if none of these options are available have alarm clocks in the room although for a large percentage of the travelling public nowadays it's just clutter taking up space and another thing for housekeeping to shake the dust off before forgetting to clear down.

I do understand though that others may think differently about it though at the end of the day everyone is different.

I was caught out by this at the Bristol Hilton recently. To make matters worse there are no electrical sockets by the bed so the alarm clock was on the desk the opposite side of the room where the only power points are, fixed to the desk and unswitchoffable. So when it went off I had to get out of bed and cross the room to deal with it as best I could. I was not a happy bunny and neither was my wife.

The alarm clocks need to have clear, easy to understand controls. Too many these days require the owners manual to set the time or alarm, or to make sure the damned alarm is off. I've had to unplug them to be sure they won't go off randomly when the setup is obscure. It's crazy that the hotel makes that impossible. And frankly, if it's 1am, I don't want to wait 20 minutes for someone to come to the room to make sure the clock is set right.

Sorry, that just seems foolish. If I wake up in a dark hotel room and want to know what time it is, I shouldn't have to turn on the TV and wake up any travel companions in the process. Nor should I have to fumble for a watch and have to remember if I changed it to current time zone.

The notion that "a large percentage of the travelling public nowadays [think that] it's just clutter taking up space" is a stretch. In the end, it probably doesn't matter as I'd bet that a clock radio is a brand standard for every US chain.

You're entitled to your opinion the same as I am. I personally don't see the point in them whilst you do we could debate it all day long. My opinion ain't going to change and I'm guessing yours won't either although I won't resort to calling you foolish because you have a different viewpoint.

Not worth a nights compo let alone two nights that us really trying it on compo wise, the women should have checked no alarms set like most sensible guests do

Common sense means always check bedside alarm clock/radios and disable alarms (or unplug where possible). And these days also check the TV
My preference is always to unplug bedside radio/clock and not to try and work it out as there us no standardisation even in same brand of hotel

Always assume some adolescent teenagers occupied room before you and thought it would be a great laugh to set all alarms for 0300 before they checked out

Yes too many hotels have now switched to hard wired non-unplugable clocks on bedside tables and/or work desks