$35 to $45 is the contract rate that my previous employer had with Holiday Inn Express.
I jumped to another company earlier this year. My current employer has a sweet deal with
Embassy Suites, with contract rates ranging from $53 to $65 per night.

Winter in a sunny climate and summer in a mild climate @ $35 per nite including internet, breakfast, all utilities, parking and daily maid service...beats the assisted living thieves.

Am I the only one who thinks this story sounds strange? Several days after check-out the OP goes back to the hotel (was it in the same town you live in?) and the shower head was apparently still just sitting on the tub edge in the same room? Or had the maintenance guy done this days earlier?

I think the hotel was fully justified for charging you for altering the plumbing and generating work for the maintenance staff, and they should have held to the charge instead of wimping out and reversing it. Changing the built-in amenities in the hotel room is not part of the contract for the room. Do you rewire the lamps if you don't like them?

If you don't like the shower head, ask the hotel to change it, but tampering with their plumbing because the hotel-supplied shower head makes you "insane" is liable to cause damage and they're justified for charging you for doing so. You also should consider that more than a few cities now have laws governing shower head water flow, and by changing the shower head there is the potential to get the hotel in trouble with zoning laws.

One could also discuss the ethics of taking an 8.5 gpm shower...

That doesn't sound that bad at all.... except I can no longer get that rate because I'm now workign for a different company.

No.... it was a few hundred miles away. I noticed the extra charge on my credit card statement. Called the hotel, spoke to the manager who checked with the maintenance guy. The guy remembered it because he probably didn't replace that many showerheads. He did say after he put the hotel's original showerhead back on, he just tossed mine in the trash(no surprise there). The manager sounded amused and even asked me where I bought the showerheads. (probably for her own home, not for the hotel rooms, obviously )

I guess it's strange, but it's not as strange as my co-worker who always brings her own hairdryer.(most in-room hairdryers are weak)

Not to mention that I still carry my own laptop, even when the hotel has laptops with free internet access in every guest room(on the club level).

I don't think it's wrong at all - i'd love to get a high flow showerhead for myself.
Can you point me in the direction of that $7 one you found?

edit.... can't find the seller that I bought from.... I'll look when I get home.

currently there are only a few left, use keywords like showerhead, powerful, blaster

a similar model to the one that I have is $18 from a different seller. It's advertised as 12.5gpm showerhead.

Question: How do you handle the switch, do you carry a wrench, or do you have a better method?

Unless the hote has a fancy showerhead, it's usually very easy to take it off. I can usually do this by hand. If it's too tight, I use a rubber bottle opener, which is a 4-inch round piece of thin rubber mat. Whatever you do, don't lose the washers.

This is a brilliant idea. I hate low water pressure during showers! Never thought of carrying my own shower head.

There will be a time you go to take it off and the half rusted feeder pipe that goes into the wall will break into two pieces.

Personally I think it's crazy, but if it makes you happy.....

Damaging hotel shower heads to get the unrestricted flow shower head is crossing the line imo..

If you can expertly take off and reinstall shower heads back on with no wear or damage.. then there is an argument to be made..

One place I've stayed tended to have blockages in some of the jets (holes) in the shower head, and I found unscrewing the perforated plate and cleaning it out made for much more satisfying shower. The ol' Leatherman from the laptop bag comes in handy yet again!
Also lets me know if I've stayed in a particular room before on a previous visit!

I think the hotel would have to be *really* old for this to happen. My former home is 50 years old and I replaced the shower heads without incident.

I was just about to say that! If a hotel's plumbing is that old, I probably don't want to stay there in the first place.

By the way, I'm no plumber. Do newer hotel have to conform to some sort of new building code? I recently stayed at a few newly-built(2009 and 2011) hotels. (a Hyatt Place and a Residence Inn) The showerhead had a different(larger/deeper) thread than usual. I didn't bother measuring it because it was pretty obvious... probably some sort of "commercial" showerhead?