Ten hotel room gripes

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Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 56 total)

  • Anonymous
    Guest

    mishmash
    Participant

    1) Unresponsive TV remotes

    2) Getting to your room to find the key card doesn’t work

    3) Posh hotels not providing ironing boards and tea and coffee facilities
    as standard

    4) Dodgy wifi internet reception, and no cable provided for wired connection

    5) Pillows that look plump and enormous, but are in fact as flat as pancakes when you put your head on them

    6) Duvet covers tucked in to the bed – how am i meant to get in?!

    7) Multitudes of lights on in the room when i arrive, and even worse… the TV on!

    8) Minibars that charge just for taking the product out of its holder – big brother is watching you.

    9) Double beds that are really two singles pushed together.

    10) Bathroom soaps that dry your skin to within a layer of its life.


    FlyingFramer
    Participant

    Hey you missed the most annoying thing…
    Low wattage lights(s) at the desk. Hard to work when its so dim!
    The wattage of the light in the warbrobe is frequently higher than the light on the desk.
    Solution – work in the wardrobe!


    LynnWood
    Participant

    and beds made up with sheets and blankets so that they finish just under your armpits – and are so tighly tucked in at the bottom it’s a major bed remake!


    MrDobba
    Participant

    Rooms that so obvioulsy havent been cleaned.

    Pathetic showers that you have to run around to get wet.

    Refurbished rooms where they have painted round the existing fittings.


    FlyinJK
    Participant

    In addition to the above…

    1) Hotels that ONLY offer an iron/ironing board, and won’t press shirts for you

    2) The recent fad of remote controls no longer having sleep timer on them

    3) Finding out that the Pay-TV is not actually available/working [in countries where news channels are the only English option!]

    4) Being made to wait at check-out in some hotels, while someone secretly runs to your room to check the mini-bar, and see if you stole any hangers. Ridiculous! Especially for Platinum guests!

    5) Flimsy walls, so you can hear your neighbours alarm clock at stupid times…

    6) Finding hairs in your room/bathroom… which aren’t yours!

    7) Windows that won’t open. After 10 hours on an overly air-conditioned flight, the last thing I want to do is blast the AC in my room.

    8) Lack of options or flexibility on room-service menu… I’m vegetarian!

    9) Rooms which have an un-removable smell of smoke, even though you booked non-smoking

    10) Being charged extra for double occupancy. Why? It’s the same bed, it doesn’t cost the hotel any more!


    jimfanatic
    Participant

    Rooms next to lifts that make that “bing bong” sound every time they open – ALL NIGHT!

    And on the subject of hotel lifts – why are they always at the other end of the building whenever you call them?


    bombayteddy
    Participant

    Bathtubs that are SO high you need to be an acrobat to hoist yourself in/out (Case in point: Gyand Hyatt Cairo). And nothing to hold onto while you’re doing that. Especially annoying when the ONLY shower available is over the tub!
    Only 2 bottles of mineral water provided. This is INEXCUSABLE in a 5-star hotel in a tropical country, at the prices they charge. C’mon, how much does a couple of extra bottles actually cost the hotel, if the guest requests it? Though of course, the amount one is asked to PAY for extra water is usually extortionist. But then, they have to make money SOMEWHERE dont they?!


    travelwell
    Participant

    one to add: those stupid floor lights that are left on at night near your feet under the bedside table, complete waste of time and very annoying fumbling around the room trying to figure out how to turn them off.


    Binman62
    Participant

    My gripe is rip off WIFI charges in rooms. It does not matter if you are in a holiday inn express or a Conrad or the Intercontinental, they all seem to believe that £10 a day is reasonable. When will they learn


    watersz
    Participant

    krap gyms and swimmingpools. So small you cant swing a cat and 2 people there is a crowd.

    Giving the breakfast lady a dollar tip every morning for pouring my coffee when I’ve just had to fetch everything else from the buffet my self. (stateside)

    A Bell boy appearing from nowhere to carry my case the last 50M to my room when I’ve had to carry it 3000+ km

    welcome letters on my bed promising to move the earth to make my stay a success
    Then asking them for help to be told we dont offer that service


    steve11
    Participant

    I recently stayed in a hotel and when I sat or laid on the bed, I could here the plastic
    mattress cover crackling every time I moved. I understand that hotels are worried about bed bugs but that was super annoying.


    conair346
    Participant

    One thing I love is that the CP I’ve worked in since it opened in 2008 as a brand new 4* property had 228 LG TV’s installed in the rooms – with no HD content, and worse no HDMI cabling anywhere. Its not even easily upgradable.
    The same owners are building a HIX hotel right next to mine and we’ll wait and see if they embrace the future.

    When staying away, I’ve found mostly the same issues like TV remotes, Internet and pillows. On pillows, I stayed at the Hesperia Tower, BCN last summer and it took them 3 hours to deliver more pillows. They had to phone the room at 1am to get me to answer the door. I was less impressed by being woken, than the failure to deliver. Oh and they forgot the bath salts I ordered.

    I love staying in Holiday Inns and seeing the old school Philips TV/internet systems with keyboards and how the hotels still intend to charge for their use. Its usually those remotes that dont work either. Two different rooms at HIX GVA Airport a week apart had the same issues with the remotes.

    One I havent seen yet is the seeming lack of consistency across brands. Especially with the basics, as mentioned – bed sheets being tucked in so its like an origami puzzle to get into. Some offer a decent range of tea/coffee etc in room, while others its only one tea and one coffee and no hot chocolate. Infact some HIX’s are nicer in the rooms than HI.


    seasonedtraveller
    Participant

    I am certain that people who design hotel bedrooms never actually sleep in them!

    1 – Flatscreen TV’s (mainly Samsung) with an annoying bright blue light on the fron t that cannot be switched off.
    2 – Bedside light switches on one side of the bed only.
    3 – Numerous light switches that mean you have to get back out of bed to turn them off.
    4 – Impossible heating / cooling-controls, I mean, how hard can it be??
    5 – Showers that run hot then cold, then hot, then cold etc
    6 – The coffee provided, even in 4-5 star hotels is instant, why cant they simply provide ground coffee & a French press?
    7 – (this is a common one) – Dirty glasses in the bathroom, where someone had had their toothbrush in there & the cleaner has simply rinsed the glass.
    8 – When there is just ONE tissue left in the tissue box


    conair346
    Participant

    I hear what you’re saying ST.

    I agree about the designers. The bar in my CP is so operationally flawed (fridges opposite each other, half wide door in back room, wine fridge outside of the bar) but looks nice. The designer came in a short while after we opened and she admitted she messed up.

    On the tv issue, its moderately old ~4/5 year old Samsungs with that blue light and its in the settings menu. I used to have one; you can set it to on when the tv is on, on when the tv is off or off all the time.

    Light switches are so infuriating, theres no need for 5 zones of lighting, unless you’re in a banquet hall. Not a bedroom for sleeping and maybe so work!

    Providing real/ground coffee wouldn’t work, there would be so many complaints about the grinds not being fresh, and it would be so messy. Its bad enough operating an espresso machine as a barista and getting the grinds everywhere nevermind some guests who belong in travelodges/premier inns trying to figure out a cafetire.

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