I'd use my Blackberry's alarm but it's too darn quiet to wake me. I usually travel with a Screaming Meanie...and yes, it'll wake me no matter how jet-lagged I am.

And your neighbors on either side, and the folks across the hall.

So you're the one. ;)

i will leave a wake up call request but i don't trust it.

i will set the alarm on the alarm clock but i don't trust it either.

i rely simply on the alarm clock feature on my cell phone and if i get the other two....bakshish

In the dark ages I would travel with an alarm clock. Now it's just my Blackbery. I don't use the wakeup call as there is just too much room for human error. I have received wake up calls that I didn't request, so not only did the hotel wake me up needlessly, I know someone else didn't get their call.

I think it was Fairmont that used to deliver a pot of coffee with their wake up calls that they made by knocking on your room door. Wonderful free perk that my wife especially liked when she would travel with me.

As far as the hotel room alarm clock, used one once when I had to be up at 5AM. I made the mistake of having it wake to a radio station. Problem was it was a smaller town, and the FM station I had used to wake me signed off at some point in the night and didn't sign on until 6AM, so although the alarm clock worked, the only sound the off the air FM station put out was silence. This was probably 5 years ago, and I hadn't thought about stations actually signing off any more.

One of the first things I do is take the phone off the hook and disconnect the receiver when I get in my room. I don’t need no stinkin’ wake up call, mine or someone else’s (or late night wrong numbers).

If I do use a wake up call, I always use the automated system to program it myself. Those have never let me down.

My cell phone is my primary alarm clock, it is fairly loud, but I'll also set the clock radio for 10 minutes or so later.

I just don't like a ringing phone to wake me up.

There is error in pretty much any wakeup system, though I'll take full credit for some of it (like accidentally setting PM instead of AM). My strategy is to use several alarms simultaneously - wake up call, cell phone alarm, laptop alarm. I figure ALL of them can't fail! :)

Sometimes I don't get a wake-up call. But I have set an alarm, so if the wake up call false, I am happy with my own alarm clock.

Better to set 2 of your own wake ups, then rely on a stranger to wake you up.

I carry my own small alarm clock. (Magellans about $10) that has lasted over a year without being left in a hotel room.

Cheap insurance.

This happens so often that I do not rely solely on the wake-up call. i always leave myself a back up. On many occasions I have been thankful for the back up as the hotel wake up just never happened.

That's harmless to what happened to me in a Korean hotel: the alarm clock in the room next door went off early in the morning, and there was no occupant... Calls to the front desk were in vain because they couldn't understand what I was saying.

At least you can switch off (or otherwise disable) an alarm clock in your own room.

HTB.

I always check the in-room alarm clock for the same reason as others - to ensure it's not set for some ungodly hour.

I typically request a wake-up call, but always set my mobile phone as well. It is very loud and obnoxious :D The reason I don't use my BB is that it always seems to use my home time as opposed to the time zone I'm currently in. It's no fun setting the alarm for 6:30am and having it go off at 4:30am (Central to Pacific).

I am a little surprised that nobody has posted flaming statements to particular hotels. The first thing that came to mind when i read the OP is that Crowne Plaza has the wake-up call gtd. If you dont get it, your night is free! Interesting part is that they arent even permitted to challenge your claim. Unfortunatly I saw a lot of people abuse that system when I worked in hotel ops. :td: Bad Karma. :td:

For US phone numbers, I love using http://snoozester.com/.

I use it as a backup for alarm clocks for times when I absolutely cannot afford to oversleep. I think you can get 10 free calls just by signing up. One of the things I like about this service vs other wakeup services is you can buy credits and they dont expire.