Unclear on the Concept

Old May 15, 2019, 10:50 am
  #16  
 
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Glad to see its not unique to me. Back in the 90's I carried a small shower head that I had modified to increase flow, plus some teflon tape and a wrench. My wife thought I was crazy, but the low flow shower heads at the time were a complete joke. I don't bother to do so anymore, as 95% of the hotels I stay in are just fine.

DT's are such a mixed bag though, many are old, some are newer. It seems to be what Hilton calls a hotel that doesn't fit any of the other brands. I haven't seen a new hotel with heat lamps installed in many years. Thankfully regarding the fans, many hotels have switched to a central exhaust for new construction, as it works better and actually cheaper, and of course much more quiet.
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Old May 15, 2019, 1:23 pm
  #17  
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I feel like this thread just got taken over by Level 100 guild members.
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Old May 16, 2019, 1:29 pm
  #18  
 
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Being in the hospitality industry for decades of my life, I had no idea so many people were messing with the shower heads. That explains a lot of weird problems with showerheads that just appeared out of nowhere at times.

The brands take showerheads seriously these days, and I remember at the earliest part of this awareness Holiday Inns worked with the Teledyne Waterpik makers for a custom one for Holiday Inn properties. I know I've still got a few of those somewhere. They were mainly limited to 3 settings vs 6 of the original Waterpik and had a white plastic finish vs chrome. But they worked well enough that the free samples we had from tradeshows were going to be used in our personal showers except we also got free samples of the full blown Waterpiks.
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Old Jun 9, 2019, 7:28 am
  #19  
 
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Who woulda' thunk? A FlyerTalker carrying around his handy-dandy personal shower head and ending up in a 1990s USA Today issue? What a hoot.
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Old Jun 9, 2019, 11:29 am
  #20  
 
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Originally Posted by sallyerd
Who woulda' thunk? A FlyerTalker carrying around his handy-dandy personal shower head and ending up in a 1990s USA Today issue? What a hoot.
bonus points for someone who can find the article and link it here.
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Old Jun 9, 2019, 6:07 pm
  #21  
 
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Originally Posted by SamirD
bonus points for someone who can find the article and link it here.
Vegas has it at 16 hours. I'll take the under.
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Old Jun 9, 2019, 6:21 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by Mike Rivers
I assume you're not asking just for a picture of a shower head. You can find one like the one I carry with me at Home Depot

No plumbers tape required. They generally don't leak when they're just a bit beyond finger-tight. Sometimes they're so corroded (or the hotel's maintenance department was afraid that someone would steal the shower head) that they're really difficult to remove. There have been two or three times when I've been defeated. Some require just a little twist to get them off, others take all the torque I can apply with the TSA-legal size channel-lock piers that I carry in my "bathroom stuff" bag.



If you'd like to see a picture of me in the shower with my personal shower head, you'll have to be better at searching the USA Today photo archive than I am. One evening while on a trip, I was reading the free copy of USA Today in my hotel room. In the Travel section, they asked travelers about things they do to make their hotel room feel more like home, so I e-mailed that I brought along my own shower head and a pair of pliers so I could change out the usually clogged shower head in the hotel bathroom. The next day, I received a reply asking if they could send out a photographer to take a picture of me and my shower head for a follow-up article. I was going to be there for a few more days (the Embassy Suites in Arcadia, CA) and we made arrangements to meet the next evening. After a free drink, we went up to my room to take a photo, and darn if they didn't publish it. I used to have a copy of the page in the newspaper but it seems to have slipped beneath the surface here.

If anyone wants to try to search for the photo, I'm pretty sure it was in the edition around or exactly April 1, most likely between 1996 and 1999.

I didn't find you, but I'm guessing these are your kids???
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Old Jun 11, 2019, 10:46 am
  #23  
 
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Originally Posted by Mike Rivers
Being an engineer, I always have a few tools with me. One of the first things I do when I encounter a bathroom with a single switch for the light and fan, I climb up on a chair, remove the grill, and disconnect the fan. Most just plug into a socket in the fixture. I leave them disconnected as a courtesy to the next person who stays in that room. There are a couple of places where I've stayed often enough to stay another time in a room where I've disconnected the fan on a previous stay, and it's still disconnected. I guess it isn't high on the maintenance checklist.
I may have some work for you.

Stayed at a newly built Holiday Inn Express at PDX. It had all the stuff that Hilton says is not valued by Millennials:
  • Superwide room.
  • Superwide hallways, passing a housekeeper's cart will never be a problem.
  • In-room safe inside of closet with doors (yuk!).
  • Big TV set, adjustable angle (not fixed straight to wall).
  • Super big elevator without annoying beeps or loud bells.
  • Lounge coffee / tea all day long, as well as in-room coffee maker.
  • USA Today newspaper.
  • Not a single wall text is encouraging you to you to do anything.
  • Modern overall atmosphere.
  • Super big fitness room, 50-100% extra equipment.
  • Reusable plates and cups at breakfast.
  • Free parking (Hello, we're one metro stop from the airport!)
  • Tesla power chargers.
  • Bathroom light switch co-operates bathroom fan
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Old Jun 11, 2019, 12:07 pm
  #24  
 
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I'm actually surprised a new HIX has those features! Those are definitely not what the trends in the hospitality industry are going towards today.
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