UnderEst

No, so you either have to have all the lights on or all the lights off. Defeats the point of a bedside lamp. I often use them when I need to either crank out a quick document befor bed or to do some reading.

sethb

OK, that hotel is rated NOT ACCEPTABLE.

I hope you wrote appropriate reviews on various travel sites.

dfe

I just recently completed a stay at the Ren Chicago Downtown, and while I was upgraded to a large, well appointed corner room as a Plat. I was dumbfounded and really pi**ed to find that there was no desk in the room. Thus I was forced to sit on the couch and work my laptop off a 18" round decorative non-utilitarian table with no space for a writing surface, and had to string my power cord half way across the room.

This is not a resort and the ironic thing is that this property caters to small business conferences (there were two in progress during my visit). No desk is just pure stupidity. What do these nuts think --that everyone now sits on the couch or the bed and works off a smartphone or an iPad with no need for a writing surface?

I had a few other issues with the hotel that are not relevant to this thread, but rated as a Cat 8 property it is totally off the tracks. A great location but I will never return. Too many other good options in Chicago.

DL-Don

I hope you complained about the lack of a desk to management.

outwrdbound

I must say, I am surprised at how many people here use the desk. I am a road warrior myself, but am in my early 30's (maybe that is the difference) and I never use the desk. I couldn't even tell you which rooms I have had contain desks vs. which ones don't. As long as there is a comfortable couch, I am fine. I do agree though that the curved couches in the redesigned CY rooms are not comfortable. In a redesigned CY I tend to work in the lobby on a chair. Now that I think about it, maybe this is by design, to get us in the lobby/Bistro area. Every time I work in the lobby, I end up buying coffee or iced tea in the Bistro.....hmmmmmm.........

DL-Don

DING DING DING DING.... we have a winner!

joshua362

Or its just cheaper not to buy real furniture... And replace it with IKEA type crap.

Jiatong

At the new JW central in Beijing for a week, & as a plat did get an upgrade to a suite. So nice there are "2" desks in the suite !.
BTW, also the 15th floor EL staff are truly great.

apodo77

44 and can't remember the last time I used the desk.

DL-Don

OK but do you avoid hotels that include desks in their rooms?

darthbimmer

It's not just about your age, it's about what you do in your room. How often do you work in your room? Doing something more complex than reading email & firing off short responses? For an hour or more at a time?

When I'm just catching up on email or making a phone call, I enjoy relaxing on the sofa. I can read email with the computer in my lap, or set it on the coffee table while I talk on my headset. I can also do these things stretched out across the bed or-- if it's quiet enough there-- in a lounge. But when I have to do real work for a lengthy period of time I need a desk.

SkiAdcock

This.

DL-Don

It is also about your age because, for many of us who never wore glasses, at about age 45 or so we start to need "reading" glasses. That includes reading the computer screen. The computer-on-the-lap usage model fails because the distance often doesn't work with the reading glasses (or cheaters) we buy at the drug store.

keeton

I had to look it up but it was in 1995 (20 years ago, yikes!) that Marriott introduced "The Rooms That Work (R)" that featured the double deck desk that could slide into itself or expand as needed, high-level outlets and a computer connection (it was modems at that time). It would take a few years to roll it out to all properties as it had to wait for their renovation cycle.

This was an incredible innovation for business travelers. I had just starting traveling for my job at that time and it made absolute sense to choose Marriott. Now, I will have to rely on reviews to see if a Marriott property is "deskless" and usable for business travel.

A lot of the cr@p that Marriott is doing these days seems to have started when Bill stepped down. I can understand not wanting to be stodgy and wanting to keep up with the times, but there seems to be a lacking of common sense with the current management, which Bill had.

krlcomm

54 and I use the desk every day. That said, if they give me a comfortable non-desk option like a table that swings over a couch and functions as a desk that's fine by me. I had a nice table/desk that swung over a very comfortable chair at the Fisherman's Wharf Hyatt (sorry, wrong forum) a few weeks back that was fine by me. I need a comfy work space in my room (not hanging out in the lobby!) and I'm fine even if it's not a "desk". No work space = no stay, at least for me.