Mike Rivers

A little background so your first reaction isn't "who cares?" - or maybe this will get moved to the Technology or Coffee Maker forum. I like to have one decent cup of coffee while going through my overnight e-mail, before I get dressed. Before hotels started putting coffee makers in the rooms, I'd bring my own filter cone and an immersion heater. For many years I got away with bringing my own filters and coffee and using the in-room makers. Now that most of the coffee makers can't make a decent cup, I've come back to the filter cone, using the in-room microwave oven to heat the water.

Last week I spent 4 nights at the Best Western Meridian in Orange, CA. When I awoke the first morning, I noticed that there was a place for a microwave oven in the shelf system, but no oven. So (after dressing, of course) I asked the front desk agent about the missing oven, expecting a prompt replacement and I was shocked with the answer: "You booked a Standard room. Those rooms don't have microwave ovens. If you had booked a suite (more expensive, of course), those rooms have a microwave oven." I begged and pleaded, exchanged "call me" messages with the manager (no actual conversation), and even called Best Western's customer service department hoping that they could intervene. But the answer was always "no, you can't get a microwave oven for your room." Corporate told me that all Best Westerns are independently operated and they didn't really have any say as to what should be included in a room.

I can't remember the last time I stayed in a hotel room that didn't have a microphone oven, though I'm sure some of you have. However, it's just been something that I expect in this category of hotel. Part of my argument was "How could I possibly know that the room had no microwave oven. A refrigerator was listed under "amenities" Should I have surmised that it didn't specifically list "microwave oven" that there wasn't one? I checked the web site again to see if there was something that I overlooked, but no, the list of in-room amenities was the same for both the standard room and the suite. (the suite didn't list a microwave oven either)

So, can I expect that other hotels will get on this path and I'll have to carry one more thing along with me when I travel?

Maybe managers are going the way of the dodo, too. This is the sort of thing that I would expect a manager would accommodate to keep a guest happy. I suggested that perhaps they had a couple of back-up ovens that they could bring to a 'deserving" room if if its oven quit. Nope. I suggested discounting me $25 for one night and I'd go to the nearby Target and buy an electric hot pot. Nope. There was a convention (that's why I was there) and they had a full house at elevated rates. Wouldn't it be worth twenty five bucks to keep a guest from writing a rant like this?

That's all.

sdsearch

I doubt this is a change, or if so, beyond this one hotel.

Many years ago I ran into some other hotel (I can't remember which for sure, might have been a Super 8 in Costa Mesa), which did list microwaves for some rooms but not for other rooms. So it's nothing new for some rooms to have microwaves and others not, it's just new to you because it's apparently the first time you ran into such a case.

And then some hotels will let you use a central microwave if there's not one in your room, while others won't.

"All Best Westerns are independently owned and independently operated", so you should expect more variation between BWs than many other brands.

But I'd stay definitely don't expect a microwave at any hotel that doesn't list it as either a feature of your room or as a feature in all rooms. It's just never been a "universal" feature in all rooms at all hotels. You must have just been "lucky" if you were under the impression that it was.