Errr, I believe that in England you may come across the occasional person who speaks English as a first language. :D

Dozens of other countries as well, come to think of it...

For those of you who have connecting rooms and can hear the people through the doors, I've found that opening up the door on my side and putting a rolled up bath towel at the bottom of the door and then closing the door helps to block at least some of the noise. Although this is usually not a problem for us because my spouse has a white noise MP3 that repeats and is hooked up to portable speakers. We use that as a noise machine at night and to listen to music at other times.

[QUOTE=Camflyer;18073421]Always happens that my room card times out on a late checkout. I can't remember the last time Fairmont actually had a room card that worked past regular checkout hours on days I've got late checkout.

Count me in re the "welcome calls," indecipherable voice messaging systems, malfunctioning key cards, noisy TVs, and ignored DND signs.

A couple other things I didn't see:

1. Absent or outdated list of TV channels so I don't have to endlessly channel-surf to find the show / station I am looking for.
2. TVs that always revert back to the hotel / LodgeNet channel on startup, instead of the channel I had been watching.
3. Failure to replenish the supply of breakfast-menu door-hangers after the first night. Hotels are losing a lot of room service $$ from me due to this oversight. I just don't want to have to make a decision or talk to anyone in the morning, so being able to order my breakfast the night before works perfectly for me. Without that option, I'll simply skip breakfast or wait until I get to my client site to eat.
4. Cheap, stale in-room coffee options.
5. Weak water pressure. Given the choice between a fancy but drippy "rainfall" shower head and a straight but fierce spray, I'll take straight but fierce any day.

Yeah, I have used the extra card trick, even used folded business cards which will work at some places. The card for electricity thing seems to be more prevalent in Europe and other places overseas.

Never enough power outlets
Paying for internet - and it's slow or no signal

Speaking of which when a phone flashes that there is a message waiting, and no instructions to retrieve the message.

I understand its a hassle to apply formatted instructions onto the hotel respective telephones.. but bit of an irritance having to call the operator for instructions.

This is my #1 pet peeve. We've had them try to steal backpacks off our backs at some places. We tell them we don't need their help and they still follow us into the lift then scoot ahead of us to the room and flick light switches around. I would love to know some emphatic but polite way to put these guys off.

I don't stay in hotels with bellhops, but I wonder what would happen if you headed them off with "I'm not going to be tipping you." Would they just get confrontational, or might it get them to back off? You might at least get them to pause for long enough to get into the room and close the door. :)

I don't like the word "hate". Think of all the good things hotels do for us, be happy and enjoy the stay.

a partial list, compiled as i sit in a hotel room:

1. no alarm clocks, as previously mentioned. clock radios are a diabolical abomination.
2. down pillows, aka "your head will sink down to the mattress while you're suffocated between two mounds of loose downy material." comfortable down pillows might exist somewhere in the world, but i've never seen one in a hotel.
3. the welcome call. i just talked to you five minutes ago, and thought we were done.
4. the flashing message light, where the message tells me how to use the hotel's VM system. or that housekeeping complied with my DND request.
5. caffeinated coffee packets that are nearly indistinguishable from decaf, especially in low light in the morning. make the decaf pack bright orange, or something similarly obvious.
6. light switches that do nothing, or do something inane like turn the bathroom light on when you're entering the room. at the very least, when i open the door i should be able to flip a switch that lets me see the room.

My main bugaboos are:

No accessible, available power outlets near the bed

Gouge prices for Wifi, for Breakfasts, and at whatever general purpose shop is on the premises.

I hate finding out that the card slot near the door shuts off ALL POWER to the room, including the minibar fridge which I asked to be emptied because I was keep several food items that needed to stay cold ALL DAY not just when I am in the room. Really annoying.

Years ago, when I was on a company expense plan, the company would not pay for dinner "At the Hotel" where you were staying. I think the theory was you were already staying there, and that was enough. I know, a strange company policy, but it forced me to go out and eat dinner.

Today, as it's my money, I typically eat a big lunch and just do salad for dinner. Thus, no issues finding a restaurant for din din. ;)

Yes happened to me in Medellin Colombia. Thankfully he accepted American Dollars