carolinaflyr

Anecdotally, I've noticed on more than one occasion that in-room A/C seems to shut down late at night, even though the thermostat is calling for a lower temperature, and to restart in the morning. I asked the front desk where I am staying today about this and received a very equivocal answer. Does anyone have any knowledge as to whether this is done? Information from industry insiders would be most appreciated.

Jeannietx

I have been in a couple that had a motion detector that would shut down the AC after so long of time with no movement. In both cases we called and a guy came in and removed something from the control panel.

mike2200

Never had this in any Asia or Europe hotels, we stayed in, seems strange

MSPeconomist

The motion detector heat and AC systems are horrible. Even if you're sitting and quietly reading or watching a movie, the heat/AC tend to shut down.

CKA1

Well,

I stayed at a small town motel last Christmas. The thermostat in the room had been destroyed and never fixed. I tried desperately to get some kind of heat, and was only moderately successful. The average temperature outside was around -30C, and I am pretty sure the temperature inside was about 15C. For relevance, 22C is a comfortable room temperature. 0 is freezing.

I phoned the front desk and asked for somebody to fix the heater. I then phoned and asked for a couple blankets as it was really cold. Couple minutes later, I got a knock on the door. The desk clerk had brought me four quite heavy blankets.

At work, we have water heating. It gets hot, then when the temperature in the control room reaches a certain temperature, it shuts off. It doesn't matter what the temperature in your office is, meaning that it often gets very chilly at your desk. If this happens at your hotel and the maintenance guy decides to turn down the heat for the night, figuring everybody's in bed, it will be very cold in certain rooms and very warm in the control room. Some similar systems do not register heat in individual rooms, but I have yet to see this system used in buildings with forced air heating.

Chuck

Emeraldcity

This. I always call and have them come override the system to not shut off due to no motion. Drives me crazy cause I need it quite cool in the room ALL night in order to sleep.

Rebelyell

All of the Disney hotels (plus many others) have motion detectors which shut off the air when their is no movement. So this means when you come back to your room it is 120 degrees. Worse, it means you wake up in the middle of the night violently ill because the AC has been shut off and the room has become stifling hot.

As for the hotel with the 15 Centigrade rooms, what a treat! To be able to snuggle down in a bunch of blankets in a nice, cold room is one of life's great pleasures.

radnub

I love a cold room! I've been to hotels where they don't turn the A/C on during 'winter' time so you're stuck with using the window which never helps and it's horrible. I try to stick to HIX and Marriott RIs which allow a pretty good range of control for my heating/cooling which is pretty important to my sleep.

I'll keep the tip of calling the front desk to disable the motion sensor in my back pocket. Good to know!

chris19992

The Henry hotel in Cebu does(did) this, really really annoying especially as you are in a tropical country.
Never actually thought of calling the front desk to remove the sensors, I just looked up the unit online and got the access code.

gfunkdave

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ts-hotels.html

pinniped

This... Even worse is when the hotel has windows you can't open.

Hilton MSP Airport is one example. Temps in MN can vary widely in the fall, so they switch the entire hotel over to heat sometime in September or so. We had a stay there in October when the high temp outside was 75 or so. You wouldn't think that would be warm enough to make the hotel unbearably hot, but it was. They put big portable fans in each room, but it didn't matter much. The only way I'll stay at this hotel again is if it's in the middle of summer, as I presume the AC works fine when it's on.

spd476

The Embassy Suites just down the road from that Hilton was the same way. Luckily the room had a door that could open to a miniature balcony so I was able to cool off the room. Fortunately it cooled down enough at night so I could close the door. My stay was in late November so it was a little more understandable that they had the cooling off. Warmer than normal temps on a sunny day with a south facing room was not a good combo.

Dubai Stu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR1mKKOubUc

https://www.mge.com/saving-energy/business/bea/article_detail.htm?nid=1830

BuildingMyBento

I've stayed in places where the a/c kicked in once every twenty minutes or so...mainly in Europe.

SE Asia likes to have the a/c constantly running on full blast (and like in China, those plastic key slots are seldom required to do so).

ChangingNappies

Posts in that tread suggested the motion detector defecting mylar ballons (the big 'metalic' heart or Mickey shapped shapped ballons). Have the fans blow air on it so it moves.. YMMV...