Anthony,
The Portman style atrium hotels were dazzling in the 70's when energy was still plentiful. They are very eco-unfriendly and I don’t think that earth can support any more of them. Several atrium hotels were built in China in the past decade. Energy cost over there is several times more than here. The hotels kept the air-conditioning at the upper limit of the comfort zone. Some even covered the skylights with tarp altogether in order to cut down heat gain.

The Intercontinental in Pudong (formerly the Asia Thompson) is one. Local officials do not like it because if they go upstairs to a guest’s room (to conduct funny business) they do not want to be seen in open view.

On the subject of electrical outlets, why does it seem that some hotels' outlet in the bathroom appear to become discharged after a few minutes of use?

I used to run into this just in Asia, but ran into it on a cruise ship last month and just last week ran into it in an Arizona resort also. In all cases, other 110V outlets outside the bathroom were fine.

These are the grounded outlets with limited output for shavers only. An old concept, inflexible and quite useless really. It has been obsolete since the late 80's.
Most men travelers carry a battery-operated shaver or a manual one. The AC shaver are too bulky and heavy to carry for international travels.
Most hotels changed these outlets to regular outlets when they upflag.

To revive this interesting thread, two other peeves:

- dirty balconies / chairs. If a room has a balcony, presumably the weather and view are nice enough for a guest to venture there. Yet the provided lawn chairs are often blackened by pollution and rarely cleaned. Same goes for the exterior handle on the balcony door.

- 'tired' and gooey remotes. Even in top class hotels I run into remotes which have reached the end of their (short?) life, or are coated with a previous guest's hand lotion or worse. The most frequently used keys (e.g. 'Menu') may only work after a hard push. Remotes are handled by nearly all guests yet hardly ever cleaned; I know their design is not conducive to cleaning. How about a remote with high-quality switches, in an easily wipeable design (waterproof?), possibly even with a cradle to recharge its batteries, that would be standardized across an hotel chain to make it a high enough volume product to be viable? A remote for a hotel TV does not need as many buttons as a home one either. While we are at it, with rechargeable batteries backlit keys would become a possibility.


Unrelated: new hotels would seem to be prime candidates for the new self-cleaning glass hitting the market now. The only thing I dislike more than a dirty window in a skyscraper is a cleaning 'tub' suddenly appearing outside my window while I am undressed!

[This message has been edited by monahos (edited 06-12-2002).]

Good observation. Most hotels get their TVs free, provided by Video-on-Demand/On-Command, and therefore don't have much choice in the design of the remotes. But you are right. At least they can keep them clean and replace the worn ones. TV is the single most important entertainment/info center in a guestroom. With the integration of STS Hotel Net’s Internet-driven technology, On Command’s television platform will become Web-centric. The seamless integration of the two technologies will provide guests with access to a broad range of entertainment and information services from a single source. The control will be by keyboards. Hopefully they will keep the keyboards clean too.

[This message has been edited by henryw (edited 06-15-2002).]

Henry, I tried to let my imagination run wild and think of things that I would like to see in a hotel room that I have never yet seen, rather than ten things I don't like, since most of those ten things are ditto what others have already said.

Are hotel rooms universally carpeted because it helps cut down on noise? I think it would be nice for a hotel to have some rooms with bare floors with throw rugs and control for noise in other ways. This would allow the use of radiant floor/heating and cooling. Advantage, nice warm floor, no noise, and each guest can set his or her own preferences. Also, far fewer dust mites, which many people (including myself) are allergic to.

In such a room, the chairs and work desk could be on castors, so that they could be repositioned as the guest desires. Perhaps even the beds. In this way, two full or queen beds could be moved together for one very large bed. There would be a wireless network for high speed Internet access and many flush mounted power outlets at various spots on walls and floor.

There would not be a traditional tv. Instead, each wall surface would have a plasma flat screen (The long wall across from the bed would have a larger one.) These screens would be of the same aspect ratio as movie screens, so that in room movies could be shown on them with no letterboxing or pan and scan being needed. Since there would be several screens, the movie could be being shown on one or all of them, but presumably, the largest screen, across from the beds would be used most often for this. The screens would all be hooked into the wireless network of the room. Hence, if a guest wanted to, he could show an business associate a powerpoint presentation on one of the screens, while someone else was watching television on a diferent screen. When different things were being done on different screens, the guests could be wearing wireless headphones, and there could also be highly directional speakers in the walls and ceiling. Such speakers would allow a guest to choose from a variety of music options, so if he or she was working in the room, he or she could have ambient background noise if desired. The telephone would also be part of the wireless network, and, when hooked in with a video camera and the plasma screens, would allow for video conferencing on the fly.

The room should have a microwave and a fairly good sized minifridge, no matter how much that would cut into room service's profits. It should also have a small supply of disposable cutlery and plates and bowls, not just cups.

There would be track lighting on the ceiling, so that lighting could be precisely where it is wanted, as the room contents are moved around.

The bathroom would have vanities that have water run when you place hands under the faucets. Toilets would automatically flush (with a manual flush backup button). The shower would start when you climb in with no need for any controls other than temperature adjust (which by default would start pleasantly warm), with a booster unit at the shower to supplement the heating provided by the central physical plant. Result, instantly warm water. It should have the ability to provide a high pressure if the guest so desires. The showerhead should be easily adjustable by those whose hands may no longer have great strength or flexibility. The shower head should be mounted European-style on a rod so that the height of the showerhead can be moved to any height. The showerhead should also be removable from this rod, so that it can be used by people who need to sit while showering.

An advantage of this design would be great flexibility for the hotel. A guest room could be converted to a meeting room very quickly.

your hotel rooms sounds great. Too bad I couldn't afford the $500 or more it would cost per night.

I was planning on using my Hhonors points and getting a free stay there. I don't know if it would really cost $500 per night though. Most of this stuff is already widely available. It would just be a matter of putting it together, and if it was put into a new hotel ... well a new hotel would have to put SOMETHING in their rooms, so why not good stuff? Plasma screens admittedly are still expensive, but they are coming down in price rapidly.

I have compiled a list of some items that would contribute to a dream hotel/hotel room.
I HAVE NOT taken price into consideration, although with the things that are listed below, I don't think I'd want to.
NOTE: IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

1. 60" Plasma screen facing the bed/beds. Two remotes and keyboards are provided for easy Internet access, changing channels, and e-mails.

2. More Plasma screens on the ceiling, and surrounding walls, for a surrounding feel.

3. 12-speaker speaker system, with highly directional speakers all over the room.

4. Three phones in the room; one next to each bed, and one on the room's desk.

5. A very large and spacious desk, with extra room for papers, and other office items.

6. High speed (T1 or T3) Internet access, which you pay for in a package, where you buy minutes of Internet time, and then if you need more, you get another package.

7. A well-locked safe, inside a lockable and spacious walk-in closet, with a few dozen extra coat hangers.

8. A minibar with GENEROUS prices, since most hotels charge outrageous prices for food inside the minibar.
Also, they could give a few free food items, like sodas, chips, etc., since you are paying enough as it is for this room.

9. Well-lighted room and bathroom, for everyone's needs, although not too bright as to make you squint, obviously.

10. Comfortable beds in hotel room, as many beds in hotels are very uncomfortable.

11. Bedside lamps that provide enough light for reading, but not too much as to wake up the person sleeping next to you.

12. A Universal Learning Remote, which can control all electrical devices and lights in the room, such as the fan, A/C (with thermostat in the remote), heat, etc.

13. A wide variety of FREE movies on the television, instead of PPV. The price should be included in your room rate.

14. Room service that is reliable, and can be at your room exactly when called for.

15. Excellent food, high-quality, and something that everybody will like.

16. Multiple lobby restaurants, for different purposes, like a family restaurant, a fancy French restaurant, an Italian restaurant, etc.

17. NO SECURITY CAMERAS IN LOBBY. Most people, INCLUDING ME, find these extremely obnoxious; who would want to have the feeling of insecurity, that they also are afraid of criminals entering the premises.
We should just have well-armed guards in the most vital places.

18. An elevator system where you need your room card to swipe, to open, when going BACK DOWN to the lobby, and you have a doorman to press the buttons.
When going back up to your room; to insure security, they should have "elevator guards", that make sure the wrong people don't go upstairs.

19. On each floor, there should be an area where you can sit down, and another Plasma screen should be there, and there should be plenty of phones there.

20. To insure criminals don't climb up windows, there should be sensors on each window, and a main control room with guards should administer that.

PLEASE ADD TO THIS, AS I AM GETTING TIRED OF WRITING MORE...

Coming late to this thread, but better late than never. All of these have been mentioned before, but they're my pet peeves so they deserve another vote:

Not enough space in bathroom to unpack toiletries. The wall niche that someone mentioned sounds great -- takes much less space than more counter space would.

Curtains that do not close all the way.

Sound insulation, especially regarding the plumbing. I stayed at a very upscale resort where the showers had only two settings: off and very much on. When the person next door started their shower, it sounded as if a bomb were going off. Scared my wife right off the toilet. And in many other hotels, I am too frequently awakened by the person next door or upstairs who gets up before I do and showers or flushes. I *never* want to be able to hear any one else's plumbing in a hotel.

On the shower/tub thing, I think the four-fixture bathroom is the way to go. When we're travelling with our young child and stay in a place like a B&B that only has a shower, there's no way to give her a bath.

I have something to add. Thought of this while in my hotel room last night.

Doors. Make doors that close in a nice, quiet manner. All hotels I ever stay at have doors that close on their own. It would be nice if they could be on some sort of hinge that would close gently, without makign a loud noise.

Just came back from a trip and kept reminding myself I had to post this:

1. BIG HOOKS - to hang damp towels after use, bathrobes, pyjamas, washbag

2. ROOM KEY ACCESSED ELEVATORSand Security Personnel at the entrance to the elevators - which with lack of, I was being followed to my room floor during stay at the Forum Hotel in Berlin last weekend.

3. COMPLIMENTARY BOTTLED WATER - A special 'welcome' for the guest upon arrival after a long day of travel. How much does it cost the hotel, really?

4. POWERFUL Adjustable SHOWER Head - It truly spoils the stay to have a weak shower regardless of how beautiful the room is.

5. SLIPPERS - This could be just me. I hate to walk on the hotel room carpet with bare wet feet after shower/bath. (No slippers and weak shower? I am moving out! )



[This message has been edited by belle3388 (edited 06-29-2002).]