DL-Don

When in the area, I stay at either the EWR FS or the Ren... whichever is cheapest. I guess it is only the Ren now. I know they recently remodeled and there are desks there.

kmersh

I am a thin guy too and I bumped my elbow twice during my stay there and my wife bumped her elbow at least once that she mentioned to me, as opposed to the tub/shower combo where most Marriotts had gone to curved shower curtain bars which "created extra room" and made the shower seem bigger than it probably was.

Upon checking out the clerk asked what I thought of the new room and I mentioned that the lack of a desk and desk chair was IMHO a bad move. She seemed to agree, but said something about Millennials and preferring to lounge around with a device rather than sit formally at a desk.

Then she said I am a Millennial and I would not book or book a hotel room because it had or didn't have a desk and desk chair and then said but who am I and people who get paid more than me obviously know more than me. I said I am a little older than a Millennial and while I do not do any work in a hotel room I appreciate having a desk and desk chair to surf the next/etc.

No idea if Marriott will reverse their decision or not and honestly it will probably not effect my choice of hotel, but it is still annoying.

sethb

If it affected more people's choice of hotel, it would be more likely that Marriott would fix their decision.

Tizzette

Whether or not you sit at the desk to work, the surface area and chair are useful. Especially if there are multiple plugs, the desk is a place for charging all the electronics, keeping things organized rather than scattered around the room getting misplaced, a place to sit and eat a meal. A desk chair in the room besides the armchair is nice to make calls and take notes, hang your jacket on the back, a place for a visitor to sit. This whole design concept of minimalism is OK as long as it still provides the same useful functions, but too often minimalism sacrifices practicality in the name of style.

LarkSFO

I've only seen these at a Hampton Inn...

KathyWdrf

Oh, those. Those are called "lap desks" and existed LONG before laptop computers ever existed! They aren't necessarily for computers -- they can also be used for any reading or writing material and probably for other things as well. @:-)

I have a lap desk which I rarely use. I received it as a Christmas gift long ago.

KathyWdrf

Exactly. A desk serves multiple functions. @:-)

Another of my gripes is armchairs that look stylish, but are uncomfortable to sit in. (I think this was already mentioned upthread.)

LarkSFO

White Elephant?

KathyWdrf

....Like a lot of Christmas gifts.

krlcomm

The Hyatt Fisherman's Wharf (SFO) just remodeled and has the same kind of thing - a portable desk that sits at the end of the couch and swings out to position in front of a chair next to the TV... not optimal IMO but it was utilitarian and worked fine for me. I do agree that hotels should be soliciting advice from their travelers when they re-design, especially airport hotels. Not having a desk would be a negative IMO.

krlcomm

100% correct, I stay at that Renaissance all the time (will be there this week) and it definitely has desks. Nice hotel w/solid food and bar too. It always amazes me that the Spring St hotels (Renaissance and Hilton) look so close from the airport but seem like they are 10 miles away when you drive there, lol...

HelloKittysMum

Nooo! I always like a tub (ideally with a walk in shower as well) - long soak in the evening after hard day working. At one of my regular hotels in Sri Lanka I always ask for an modernised room as they still have baths.

blowstar

Amusing thread. I may be just slightly too young to be a 'Baby Boomer' but I have been designing hotel rooms on and off for thirty years, and want to defend the design fraternity.

The contour and finish of the hotel room desk might be proposed by us but whether there is one or not, and whether the bathroom door is translucent, that's down to the hotel chain and its brand consultants and marketing 'experts', Generation Y to a man. Those that are out of diapers I mean ;-)

When we did an airport Hilton in Europe it came with a thousand-page ring binder of specifications which could not be varied a whit to any local custom, received design wisdom, current best practice or latest fad. Any revision to that manual is done in focus groups and marketing agencies, not in a design studio. Every hotel chain has such a 'bible', although in its rigid inflexibility 'Qu'ran' could be more accurate.

I agree that 'surfaces' are important and have lost count of the number of times I've told a client that anything the guest needs to know can come on a webpage or through the television - but the marketing kids still strew every available ledge with laminated menus, premium movie adverts, pizza delivery and that perpetual faux-begging to 'save the planet' but actually the hotel's laundry budget by re-using your towels and sheets. Makes me insane. I tend to bundle them up with the Gideon bible and chuck them in the bin for recycling or disposal as the cleaners see fit.

Make your feelings known to hotel management - they are often on your side and bewildered by the decisions at marketing director/boardroom level, but they at least get to speak to those guys when you usually can't.

And keep providing feedback. Designers want to learn, too.

Mike Rivers

I'm glad to read that I'm not the only one who's noticed those things. Since I'm nearly always in a hotel room by myself, I leave the bathroom door open when possible but often as not, I have to close it in order to leave the room. Or sometimes I don't have to close it because it closes itself. I recently stayed in a Hilton Garden with a self-closing bathroom door that I fixed by improvising a door stop from one of the paper coffee cups in the room to keep it half open so I didn't have to move it when I wanted to leave the room.

The modernizing that I most object to is the updated coffee makers. Before I get dressed, I want to have a cup of good coffee while sitting at the desk reading the morning's e-mail on my computer. I got accustomed to the small Mr. Coffee (or similar) coffee makers and packed some filters and coffee with me. Over the past half dozen years or so (longer for Marriotts) they've been providing coffee makers that can't use anything but the coffee that the hotel provides. Yuck!

I have to give them credit (at least those that still have a work desk) for making it easier to find a place to plug in a computer.

Mike Rivers

Once they've done a makeover, it's difficult to go back. Is there a sensible space to move in a desk and chair? Probably not. If I'm staying for a few nights, I have often re-arranged the furniture (and leave it that way when I check out) but they try really hard to keep people from stealing the TV set so what that's securely bolted to is often too heavy for me to move.

Oh, and I like to listen to the radio when I'm in a hotel room, and those are getting replaced by alarm clocks or iPhone docks (I have an Android). I can have good music in the room these days by filling up a USB thumb drive and plugging it into the newfangled TV set, but I have to rely on my computer to listen to NPR.