What Are Your Top Hotel Pet Peeves? The 2014 Frequent Business Traveler Survey
 

Please click here for the article and poll results.
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Are you in a hotel room right now where you are not yet able to read this because the Internet service provided to you by the hotel is excruciatingly slow — or perhaps the reason is because you have not yet found that elusive electrical outlet in which to plug in your electronic device? Perhaps you finally see the light — primarily because too much of it is coming through the drapes from outside? What is that toilet paper — with only two squares left on the entire roll — doing behind the toilet tank?

FlyerTalk — the largest Internet travel community in the world with a rich base of travel knowledge — continues to collaborate with Frequent Business Traveler magazine on a series of polls pertaining to “pet peeves” of air travel, restaurants, hotels and technology. Frequent Business Traveler will provide the poll; FlyerTalk members — yes, you in particular — will provide the opinions.

This poll — the first in this series for 2014 — is the 2014 Hotel Pet Peeves Poll, which will be active through March 14, 2014. Many FlyerTalk members spend quite a bit of time in hotel rooms — and any hotel property can potentially foster issues and situations which can drive you absolutely insane.

The primary purpose of this particular discussion is for you to opine, elaborate on your thoughts and relate your experiences as a guest in hotel rooms — as shown in past discussions on FlyerTalk:

• What Are Your Top Hotel Pet Peeves, 2013 Edition
• What Are Your Top Hotel Pet Peeves, 2012 Edition

Results of this poll will be announced both online in the magazine and here on FlyerTalk.

So — what are your “pet peeves”? Please vote today and let everyone know!

What Are Your Top Hotel Pet Peeves? The 2014 Frequent Business Traveler Survey
 

people parking their non hybrid cars in the hybrid only parking spots.

The most annoying problem I frequently come across is badly implemented authentication for hotels' wifi internet which makes it unusable on a smartphone. You are often given a username and password, each around 8 characters with a validity period of at least 24 hours or the length of your stay. Many hotels have a server-side bug in the their wifi system whereby it unnecessarily deregisters devices if they do not maintain a continuous wifi connection. Smartphones, by design, save battery power by repeatedly disconnecting and reconnecting to wifi networks. Therefore every few minutes, a smartphone has to re-authenticate, requiring the user to tap the screen at least 20 times (8 characters/digits each for the username and password plus navigating around the screen and keyboard). This repeated tedious procedure makes the hotel wifi unusable on a mobile phone. Even worse, if you're waiting for an IP-based communication (e.g. Skype, WhatsApp, Viber, iMessage etc), you often don't receive it because the hotel's wifi system has silently kicked your phone off the network, and nothing alerts you that this has happened. This could all be fixed with a server-side software or configuration change so that each device's MAC address remains registered and authenticated on the server until the end of the username's validity period, but many hotels don't care or don't bother to rectify it. Even better than browser-based authentication, a simple WPA key, as used by bars, restaurants and many smaller hotels, would be much more user-friendly.

Another problem, albeit decreasingly common, is shower heads that are permanently fixed to the wall rather than the more common hand-held design. This is a particular problem in the United States, less so in Europe. How is one supposed to wash one armpits and more intimate areas properly with this ridiculous design? I also wonder how the housekeeping staff can properly wash a shower cubicle or bath when the shower head is permanently fixed to the wall. Shower curtains, as opposed to shower screens, are also very irritating.

Lack of easily accessible bed-side power outlets. I mean, why can't there be at least one outlet in the light fixture. Sheesh :)

+1


Also, full service hotels that don't start breakfast until 6:30am or later, particularly on the US West Coast. If you need to get to work early or if you've traveled from any time zone east of where you are, it would be great if the hotel restaurant opened earlier.

Housekeepers yakking it up in hallways! And Wifi that can't keep a connection.

Lack of outlets by the bed.
Wifi that kicks you off repeatedly.
Wifi with a limit of one or two devices.
Showers/tubs that do not drain properly.

1. No accessible outlets by the bed
2. Front desk calling to see if everything is all right with my room
3. Cable-only WiFi in the room

Wifi that cannot keep a connection. My biggest pet peeve for sure.

Also, I hate it when I get those 50 year old key cards that demagnitize after one swipe.

Bathroom lighting
 

This will probably sound trivial to all the guys, but what's really annoying to any woman who uses makeup is fluorscent or back lighting in the bathroom.

And to nfh - we Americans have been using fixed shower heads for well over a hundred years now and have managed to have clean underarms! Frankly I don't think the hand held fixtures are any great bonus!

Let me count the ways.....
 

So someone thinks 6:30 is late for breakfast to start? I think it ENDS too early, especially when I am on vacation!

Being uninformed, in advance, of maintenance issues taking place, which includes having to turn my room into a dark cave by keeping the drapes closed for privacy because the windows are being washed. Yes, I get they have to be done, sometime, but if the timing is regrettably when I am on vacation and just want to enjoy the sunlight coming in my room and peace and quiet that should be my right.

NOISE from bedbanging at 2AM and those who create it.

Outrageous parking fees.

Grossly inflated room service charges and menus.

Operating dining rooms in such a way that people do not have less expensive choices in the evening. Or serving only $20+ breakfast(!!!) buffets.


Menus that are on screen only, coupled with not even a notice in the room that the menu IS on screen (and then they wonder why no one orders it?)

The departure of hotel guest stationery for we romantics who want to send a snail mail postcard or note with a real postmark from where we are.

Not being pet friendly, in particular, those that are, and then change. And no it wasn't due to me and my pup...we are very responsible.

And, increasingly Number 1 pet peeve: LONNNNNGGGGGG check in times. Inexcusable. You know how many checkins are anticipated get more people on the desk. Just needing to make a change/ask a question requires wasting MY vacation time in line. At least switch to 24 hour check in times/departure times, or give me back the time I've spent in line.

Not just housekeepers, but anyone. Although, with the housekeepers, I find it more of an issue in SE Asia, where they do more tv watching (in my room) than cleaning anyway...

I hate having poor lighting bedside. the new light bulbs contribute to it. i've even run across hotels with an end table and lamp on only one side of the bed! Lighting lighting lighting! in every area of the room, please.

No plugs next to bed. First thing I do in any hotel is unplug the alarm clock and plug in my power strip.

Second would be checkin inefficiencies. I would love to see hotels install some kiosks. Or at least have two stations - one called "I have my stuff together" and one called "everyone else."

Third would not be not having the reserved bed size. I get that it doesn't match up one for one all the time, but when you stay at the same hotel every week and it is frequently a problem, there is something wrong with the allocation system.