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I echo others who say always check the clock at any hotel. But I found that when asking for a wake up call we are in about 10% effectiveness. So I never trust a hotels wake up call even if it’s automated. we have started taking a small portable alarm clock for this on every trip. Works wonders! |
The clock-radio is fast (it's always fast, never slow) by 5-30 minutes in maybe 75% of hotels I stay in, not that I keep track of it. This is not limited to Hiltons.
I don't want to waste time trying to figure out how to reset the clocks, so I just move them to the floor or facing the wall. |
People still use hotel clock radios or get wake-up calls? Both are notoriously unreliable - that's one of the things that phones are for. I turn the archaic thing around to face the wall, since it's inevitably wrong.
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Here's what I do, first I check the alarm is off, then if it's the cube type I turn it face down as I too hate light pollution ,I also travel with a handy eye mask, this helps!
I use my phone if I require an alarm, but also it becomes a handy night- light for trips to the toilet during the night just by lighting up the screen. |
Originally Posted by bse118
(Post 29286868)
Funny - one of the first things I often do when settling into a hotel room is unplug the clock(s).
1) My phone is my alarm. 2) It is much less likely have the incorrect time. 3) It is not going to go off at random or break into some crappy radio station because the previous guest set it. 4) It is not going to fill the room with light pollution (one my biggest hotel pet peeves is clock radios that have display brightness of the bat signal) |
Wrong time? I'm more likely to find them not plugged in...
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Originally Posted by smmrfld
(Post 29288790)
People still use hotel clock radios or get wake-up calls? Both are notoriously unreliable - that's one of the things that phones are for. I turn the archaic thing around to face the wall, since it's inevitably wrong.
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Originally Posted by trooper
(Post 29289168)
Me too... but unfortunately I suspect that means WE are contributing to the "wrong time" problem..... I certainly can NOT claim that I always remember to plug it back in and reset the time...
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Originally Posted by writerguyfl
(Post 29290123)
If you never use clock radios or wake-up calls, how do you know they are unreliable?
1) When I attempted to have wake up calls placed in the past, they were unreliable the vast majority of the time, 2) When I turn the clock radio toward the wall, I can easily see that it is inaccurate the vast majority of the time. |
Originally Posted by luke5111
(Post 29288446)
Unfortunately, that piece of jewelry disappeared from my wrist about 10 years ago.
What I now understand you to be saying, is that you are only interested in a way of insuring hotel clocks are always correct. Well, there is only one answer to that. It's never gonna happen. So that means you need to accept what is, not look for what you wish was and you need to find a way to deal with what is, that is satisfactory to you. So, if you don't want to learn to set hotel clocks or use your phone to check the time, what is your solution to YOUR problem? Personally, I just unplug hotel clocks as a matter of course. I look at my watch if I wake up in the middle of the night. I set my 'internal' alarm (works surprisingly well for me) if I want to wake up near a certain time. I have no problem. I'm left wondering just what kind of answer you really hope to get here if you reject all suggestions as not working for you. It's almost as if you expect a magic answer that will make all hotel clocks do what you want them to do. That's just wishful thinking and will get you nowhere. |
Originally Posted by dulciusexasperis
(Post 29291906)
In your OP luke, you write that the clocks are often wrong and you do not want to use your phone to see the time in the middle of the night. Now you are also saying that you no longer wear a watch. OK, I understand what you have written. But do you?
What I now understand you to be saying, is that you are only interested in a way of insuring hotel clocks are always correct. Well, there is only one answer to that. It's never gonna happen. So that means you need to accept what is, not look for what you wish was and you need to find a way to deal with what is, that is satisfactory to you. So, if you don't want to learn to set hotel clocks or use your phone to check the time, what is your solution to YOUR problem? Personally, I just unplug hotel clocks as a matter of course. I look at my watch if I wake up in the middle of the night. I set my 'internal' alarm (works surprisingly well for me) if I want to wake up near a certain time. I have no problem. I'm left wondering just what kind of answer you really hope to get here if you reject all suggestions as not working for you. It's almost as if you expect a magic answer that will make all hotel clocks do what you want them to do. That's just wishful thinking and will get you nowhere. |
Another thing that is especially bothersome is clocks that are set 12 hours off, such as set for 3:00 AM when it's really 3:00 PM. It is difficult to reset the time for Hilton's alarm clocks and probably causes a lot of maintenance calls that could be avoided if guests could reset both alarms and the current time more easily. Whenever I check into a hotel, I verify the clock's time with my phone and verify that time displayed is correct, including AM or PM.
Since many wake-up calls are now automated, I have seldom had a problem with not getting one when I asked for it. For critical wake-up times, I use my phone's alarm as the primary and the wake-up call as a back-up. Since I frequently travel across multiple time zones and am jet lagged, it's nice to have a bedside clock that displays an inaccurate time when I wake up in the middle of the night. |
Originally Posted by bse118
(Post 29286868)
Funny - one of the first things I often do when settling into a hotel room is unplug the clock(s).
... I travel with a CPAP machine and the in-room clock is often the device of choice to be unplugged in order to power the CPAP. |
Originally Posted by smmrfld
(Post 29291394)
In the slight chance that your post is serious:
1) When I attempted to have wake up calls placed in the past, they were unreliable the vast majority of the time, 2) When I turn the clock radio toward the wall, I can easily see that it is inaccurate the vast majority of the time. As auandagbug notes, wake-up calls are automated. If you weren't getting them at the correct time, you might have been staying in some dodgy hotels. Personally, if a hotel staff member can't enter a wake-up call correctly, I'd find a new hotel. If the staff can't manage wake-up calls, I'd be wondering what bigger things they're screwing up. As for the clock radio, you're conflating a wrong time with unreliability of the product. Clock radios aren't newfangled technology. If they have the wrong time, it's because a human being (probably a guest) set them incorrectly. As long as the time is correct, there's little reason to worry that the alarm won't function properly. I've used hotel alarm clocks on every one of my stays in the past 25+ years and never had a single problem. |
Wait.. I'm confused...
You mean it's actually possible for the clock to be right? With one exception a few months ago I don't recall ever actually finding a clock that was set correctly in the past year. Even worse are those new clocks they use where it's not possible to set the time without unscrewing the back... |
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