Wake-Up Call Question?
 

Yesterday, when I got into my room, the front desk person called to ask if everything was (finally) okay.

After thanking her and letting her know everything was fine, she asked if I was in for the evening. At that point, I asked for a wake-up call for six in the morning. She indicated this was no problem and repeated the time.

Thankfully someone emailed at 6:45 am, or I'd still be asleep. Thanfully, I had enough time to get ready, but lost the time I was going to get some work done and have breakfast. (They guy picking me up is running a few minutes late and I'm typing this in the lobby.)

How often does this happen to people? How upset should I be about this? (I'm steaming quietly, but want to make sure it's justified.)

Hi there,

Lack of wake-up calls is something I've seen regularly in the various FT hotel fora ... it's not something that you can rely on. For myself, I've just taken the habit of setting my cellphone to silent mode and programming the alarm on it. Never failed me so far.

(I've also learned to check that the alarm in the room is not set, as I've been woken up by the alarm programmed by the previous guest for 5 am ...)

So, IMHO, I wouldn't get worked up about, but I would report it to the Front Desk.

Cheers,

GenevaFlyer

Any time there's a human factor involved sooner or later someone will make a mistake.

The usual scenarios for wake-up calls that I've seen:
Press "Wake-up call" on the in-room phone to get dumped into the automated wake-up call setup where you specify the time.
You call someone at the front desk/at your service who manually enters the information as you tell them the time.
You call someone at the front desk/at your service who jots it down on a piece of paper or the wake-up scheduler and then enters it into the system later.

I bet you they wrote it down on the piece of paper and either forgot to enter it into the system, or fat-fingered a digit and someone a few doors down got your wakeup call :)

And I'll add my personal favorite that's happend a few times... The ringer on the phone is turned off or simply doesn't work :rolleyes:

Last March I wrote about about a Sunday night stay at the Tampa REN where Daylight Saving Time had just occurred. I quickly verified that the time on the clock was correct but didn't have my glasses and didn't see that they messed up the am/pm thing. I was an hour late that day. When I mentioned it at checkout, they told me how another guest just praised them for resetting the clocks in some 500 rooms in a few hours.:rolleyes: I guess the speed doesn't account for accuracy.

I too like to do my own via the clock or cell phone. Problem with the clocks is that each one seems to be different and has way too many options - dual alarms, wake to CD, etc plus needing a magnifying glass to read and decipher the picture settings. One setting off and you are screwed !

I hear ya ... got burned myself in the past.

Now i never even bother to use/trust that service and i put all my eggs into the 6 alarm clocks i can set on my cell phone.

The wake-up call is gravy, but it's just not trustworthy enough, IMO.

I always call just before going to bed and ask for two calls, half an hour apart. Seems like the front desk is not as busy then and they tend to enter into system right away.

I had problem one time where the phone does not ring but a recorded voice comes on for a minute so telling me to get up. Slept right thru the first call and luckily woke up on the second.

At my CY in Windsor, CT last week ... they allow the guest to program their own Wake-up call now.

you just punch it in on the phone and then it confirms it back to you.

That was cool and helpful.

cons: you can only program 1 call ... and i still didn't trust it.

pros: at least i saw myself to it! unlike the post-it notes sometimes you see at the desk ;)

I haven't used wakeup calls for years. I always set an alarm on my PDA. If it's particularly important or waking up after only a little sleep, I'll set an alarm on the cell phone as well for redundancy.

I've had too many screwed up wakeup calls from hotel staff to trust that approach.

It's very interesting that most people have stated some combination of (1) it has happened to them before, (2) it happens at all chains/everywhere, (3) they don't rely on the hotel's system or don't even use it, (4) they don't get to bent out of shape about it because they didn't expect it to work anyway.

On the other hand, we are generally much less "forgiving" of other errors (failure to deliver a platinum amenity, failure to credit points to account, etc.).

It seems we should be just as incensed about not getting a scheduled wake up call, but we've been "trained" to not count on it and are less likely to consider it a "service failure".

True...

Also maybe that we have several options on the wake-up function, several which you can do yourself while the other "service failures" are one sided and there is nothing we can do about it?

As for me, I'm usually awake way ahead of the alarm anyway (poor sleeper in hotels), the alarm/call is usually just my notice to get out of bed and moving - in most cases, being dead tired/drunk/in late the previous night not withstanding.

I think its just best to leave the human element (the Front Desk) out of it in the first place. That's why I was so annoyed about an improperly set clock a few post ago. The FD shrugged it off like it happens all the time.

I never trust wakeup calls or the clock radio in the room. In fact, I unplug both as soon as I get there. (I can tell you nightmare stories of the damn clock radio going off all night long from the previous guy who had an early-morning departure.)

So, instead, I set up my own alarm(s) on my laptop using a very simple shareware program called iAlarm:

http://www.xultrasoft.com/iAlarm/


It's a GREAT piece of software because it lets you choose to hear a beeping, a spoken alarm, a weather report, a podcast, any iTunes playlist, and more!

Worth every penny! Very reliable.


(I have no connection to the software company other than being a satisfied customer.)

Same here. I usually set the clock alarm for some time in between the two wake up calls. I figure I'm bound to get one of the 3. Maybe this accounts for why I sleep so poorly in a hotel room the first night of any trip.

Interesting side note - when staying at the Opryland Hotel for a conference some years ago, I had a few free hours late in the afternoon and I napped, but asked for a 5 pm wake up call so I could get ready for dinner. I must have been in the shower at 5 pm because I missed the call and the subsequent call. About 5 minutes later, security was at my door to make sure everything was okay since I didn't answer the phone. I thought it was kind of odd just for a missed wake-up call, but somewhat proactive on the part of the hotel.

There's a reason I keep a small alarm clock in my rollaboard (it's maybe 3"x2"x.5", so it's rather compact and doesn't take up much space) - absolutely don't trust hotel wake up calls. I've missed a few over the years.

Like GenevaFlyer, I try not to have to rely on a wake-up call, especially if I have to go through reception (or similar) to book it. I often set my mobile phone alarm, turn the phone off and program it to come on with the alarm; if I'm away for any sort of extended period I usually have my little alarm clock with me.

And also like GenevaFlyer, if there's a clock radio etc in the room, I try to remember to check that the alarm isn't set — it's not fun being woken up by the previous occupant's 4.45am alarm setting when you were counting on sleeping through to a more civilised hour!