ICN1K

My pet peeves focus mainly on Las Vegas hotels.

1. When I put a do not disturb sign on the door it means just that. I hate when house cleaning calls the room phone or bangs on the door despite the sign being there.

2. The TV volume being set by default to a high level every time you turn on the TV.

flyshooter

Annoying contact with front desk staff that goes like this, "Welcome Mr flyshooter, we've placed you on the 3rd floor or our 15 story hotel. Have you stayed with us before?" (Uh, of the 150 nights with your chain, 30 in your hotel!) Don't want to whine like I'm a prima donna but loyalty should mean something at all times to all staff members.

arlflyer

What is this "cable wifi"? That said, I am actually mourning the widespread loss of Ethernet cable connections. Faster, more reliable, easier to log in, and I'm going to be at the desk anyhow.

Other peeves:

-Lack of control over HVAC (especially fan speed independent of room temperature).

-Blinds that don't close.

-Furniture booby-traps. Like when I roll out of bed and directly onto the nightstand...

-...which I can't see because I have used a binder clip to close the aforementioned blinds, and have yet to see a SINGLE hotel that provides night lights...

-...unless you count the bright red satanic glow of the TV standby LED. Or the runway-light strobe of the CO/smoke detector, or the bright blue HVAC thermostat display that was on 24/7 which I encountered a couple weeks ago.

-I don't enjoy having to stand on the toilet to close the bathroom door...

-...or "fancy" shower types with half-walls that don't actually block the water from getting out...

-...which is compounded when the drain is clogged.

-Not enough clothes hangars to accommodate a simple one-week trip (5 shirts and a few pants).

And some other ones. Am I too picky?

txrus

1. Flat sheets on the bottom of the bed
2. Motion sensors on the AC-funny how those motion sensors never seem to
have any impact on the heat in the winter!
3. Don't steal me hangers
4. Internet that has to be reauthorized every 24 hrs-let me do it once for
the length of my stay
5. Poor lighting, especially in the bathrooms (Hilton's of all types!)
6. Windows that won't open
7. Disappearing newspaper delivery-if the hotel chain can keep track of
whether I want points or free breakfast, how hard is it to figure out that I
want the newspaper outside my door each morning?
8. All those flipping cards all over every surface in the room
9. Cards in the bathroom extolling the virtues of reusing towels but
absolutely no place to hang them other than over the shower curtain
rod. And then, of course, the housekeeper changes the towels anyway

10. Hard-wired smoke detectors that flash-who has strobe lighting in the
bedroom???
11. Window treatments that don't close completely or leave gaps around
the edges-I can deal w/the gap in the middle w/a binder clip but
top/bottom/sides?

txrus

No, you are not, though you have apparently never stayed @ either the Venetian or Palazzo in Las Vegas. Every room is a suite w/a sunken living room that has a night light at the top of the steps down into the aforementioned sunken LR. It also lights up the entire suite

I think part of the problem w/hotels is that the people making the decisions for the room amenities never actually spend any time in the rooms. The flat sheet on the beds is a prime example-if whomever came up w/that idea to begin with had to spend just one night trying to sleep in a bed w/a flat sheet on the bottom, I guarantee you that would be the last time there would ever be a flat sheet used on the bottom of any hotel bed. While I get that using flat sheets on the bottom may be easier for the housekeepers, I am still the one who has to sleep in it, and pay to do so.

dliesse

Not doing that much traveling anymore, but the complaints haven't changed.

1. The more expensive the hotel, the more things are charged for individually. Internet access is the biggest issue here.

2. There is no such thing as too many outlets. There is almost no hotel room that has enough.

3. Hotels that have all Coke products, no Pepsi. Aside from the possibility of Shasta, Diet Coke is the most vile concoction ever!

4. Airport hotels that don't have at least something available for those with early flights.

5. Hotel restaurants in general. I don't know why their chefs think they're something special, but I would like to be able to order just some plain old food without foo-foo greens, without some kind of special sauce, and at a reasonable price. Whatever happened to a plain old tuna salad sandwich?

6. This one comes from my various convention experiences: hotels that won't listen to event organizers when they try to explain how they're different from the cookie-cutter model. I regularly attend hobby organization conventions where every attendee is there as an individual, not on an expense account. We don't have lunch en masse, but everybody will eat lunch at some point. Breakfast, too (people are more likely to go elsewhere for dinner). But the hotels never believe us when we try to tell them in advance that they're going to have 200 people coming in for breakfast, so the kitchen and dining room are understaffed, there isn't enough food, etc.

7. Charging for parking. This goes double in the suburbs where paid parking is a rare thing.

Lots more, but other people are covering them quite nicely.

abls87

1. No readily accessible outlets by the bed.
2. Extra fees for everything, i.e. parking (Marriott is the worst. They charge for the priviledge of parking in their outside uncovered lots.) internet, resort fees when I'm on business travel.
3. Slow internet
4. No make-up mirrors (again Marriott unless you are in one of their luxury brands)

jcwoman

One more: if free internet access in my room is part of the reservation, I want the registration clerk to give me the access information when I check in. I've found that to be very hit or miss. There's no excuse for me to have to get up to my room, realize I can only access the paid options and have to call down to the front desk for the free access information. You know it's part of my purchase, so give it to me without having to be asked!

beachmouse

Scratchy facial tissue. It's a little thing, but one that becomes noticeable if I'm dealing with allergies or a head cold on a trip.

365RoadWarrior

- Lousy fitness centers, especially those with infomercial-quality or rickety equipment and/or short hours.
- Toilets with a facing-toward-them (e.g., back of door) mirror.
- Hotels that host large gatherings of non-guests (e.g., Amway meetings) resulting in no parking for hotel guests, especially if there is a parking charge.
- No newspapers

#1 Pet Peeve - Other guests

socalduck

Yep, totally agree. I try to grab some fruit and juice from the lounge the night before just so I have something on hand when (invariably) I wake up at 4am.

sethb

Best I've noted: 6:30 AM, I'm checking out of a hotel (where I was upgraded to a mini-suite as Gold). A DYKWIA was demanding an upgrade because he was Platinum, and the clerk was apologizing that there just wasn't one available.

I know that if he'd been polite about it, he'd have been told that there wasn't one available yet, but they'd have one cleaned for him as soon as they could, and meanwhile, have breakfast on the hotel.

And yes, outlets really are an issue. I use my phone as my alarm clock, and want to charge it overnight.

rmunson1

Certainly parking fees are annoying, especially in areas that are not major urban centers like NYC. It is one thing to pay for parking there (and many urban areas), but another thing to charge at places like Paradise Point in San Diego.

Resort fees are always a ridiculous excuse to gain revenue. Sometimes they can be 'negotiated' away, but not often.

I find it very frustrating to be able to get priceline rooms for $75-$100 when the brand hotel website continues to ask $199 and up for the same room. I guess they have figured the business model that works for them, but it is not customer friendly.

WHY do they insist on making the bed by tucking in the top sheets and blankets all the way to the pillow. Then, to get in bed, you essentially pull out everything and have a bottom sheet that is not tucked in. Very frustrating to be remaking my bed at midnight because I had to tear it apart to get in.

I could go on awhile, but these are my biggest annoyances.

arlflyer

Oooh, this one is brutal. Especially when the duvet is tucked in under the mattress super tight, and trying to pull it loose also pulls loose the bottom flat sheet, and then it rides up all night...

Which made me think of another one...how about not having duvets at all? In the middle of winter. In Chicago. A certain Hilton property, let's call it "TheHotel", apparently thinks this is a good idea. Apparently a single flat sheet and something resembling the material of one of those waffle t-shirts should suffice in the midst of the polar vortex with floor-to-ceiling windows 5 feet from the bed.

tinnub

1. No decent coffee in room.
2. Sweet n Low, no Splenda or Equal.
3. Only crappy powdered cream.