Programs: WN A+ CP, UA 1MM/*A Gold, Mar LT Tit, IHG Plat, HH Dia
Posts: 6,377
Originally Posted by writerguyfl
I think it's less that and more to avoid someone thinking: "You'd think that a 4-Diamond hotel should have an in-room safe".
If I were in a swank hotel catering to wealthy guests I would expect them to have proper safe-keeping storage managed by trusted staff, not a small box in my room that can be opened by anyone who's spent a minute googling the reset code.
I once worked in a hotel that attempted to move from 4-Diamond to 5-Diamond. I agree that some of the requirements were rather silly. The one I remember as being ridiculous was crown moulding. I can't recall if that was a 4-Diamond or 5-Diamond requirement. To this day, whenever I walk into a hotel room, I always look up and check.
My "a-ha" moment realizing most of the requirements are silly came umpteen years ago, shortly after my wife and I started traveling together. We picked all hotels with AAA guide book in hand. Money was tight, so it was usually two diamonds, but when a three-diamond joint appeared in our price range we'd take it enthusiastically. After several stays I saw a pattern that the diamond rating, especially at level two vs three, actually had very little bearing on whether we thought the hotel was nice for our needs. I looked up the standards for each rating and found that, indeed, most of the few dozen items required to earn a third star were nit-picky details irrelevant to anything we cared about.
The one I remember as being ridiculous was crown moulding. I can't recall if that was a 4-Diamond or 5-Diamond requirement. To this day, whenever I walk into a hotel room, I always look up and check.
That's funny. I'm more interested in a lack of mold than the presence of mould.
Mar 27, 2016 | 9:37 am
