Hotels have a number of quirks that manifest themselves as pet peeves for regular travellers. Many of them are just little niggles that can make a stay a little bit irritating.
When a property gets it right, a customer will choose to stay repeatedly. Get it wrong and your first visit will be your last. Here are a few things that annoy me when it comes to hotels.
Pillow Talk
Nothing turns my smile into a frown faster than bad pillows. Waltzing into a room and seeing a flat lump of nothing to rest my head upon gets my eyes rolling faster than wheels on a drag racer.
An array of overly plump pillows gets the same reaction. Clearly I’m particular about my pillow, which is not too outrageous considering it makes the difference between a decent sleep and a night tossing and turning.
Hotel Loyalty Programmes
You join up and become a Green Cow member, with promises of better benefits when you reach the lofty heights of Black Molasses. However for the infrequent traveller, what does it really mean?
All you end up with are endless promotional e-mails telling you about this or that discount. A programme that offers me a tangible benefit upon joining, such as free Wi-Fi, is far better than chasing hotel status in my book.
Do Not Disturb Means Do Not Disturb
That cute little sign that you put on the outside door handle usually says Do Not Disturb. Now to me, that would mean what it says quite literally, but apparently not.
Several times I’ve had a knock at the door asking if I’d like the room made up. No, I’m either still asleep or I just don’t need you to be coming into my room.
Paper Peeves
Our increasingly electronic world seems to have been missed at hotels. Another one of my pet peeves is having to fill in some kind of paperwork and sign when I check in to a hotel. You have my details, so why not just check my ID to see if it matches?
It’s the same at check-out. Business people do often require a printed invoice for their expenses, so I get it, and some hotels ask if you want the bill printed or not. However, I don’t really need it printed off just to make sure it’s correct. Just show me on a screen and e-mail me a receipt!
Housekeeping Trolley Dodge-Ems
My curtains are drawn, the room is dark and I am blissfully asleep in a hotel with good pillows. Morning comes and I plan on sleeping in, however housekeeping has other ideas.
Whether it’s calling to each other in the corridor, or bumping their trolleys around, it’s really not great for sleep. Please, keep the noise down!
Overall Thoughts
In the main, hotels get it right. You’re there to sleep and to have a base in a new city, which is just fine. However, there are various things that influence how good a stay you actually have.
Noise from other guests can’t really be helped, though a snarky half asleep call to reception usually sorts that out. Don’t get me started on things like the TV remote, crappy irons or strangely placed power sockets!
What are your hotel pet peeves? I’d love to hear about them. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.
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Featured image by Joseph Gonzalez on Unsplash.
Pillows image by Maddi Bazzocco on Unsplash.
Housekeeping trolley via Indiamart.
Plug sockets too close to desk that don’t fit Apple Macs. Lights that are impossible to switch off…
I hear you on the lights – last thing I need before heading off to sleep is a hunt around the room to try to find out how to turn the light off! Thanks for the comment!
I need water to clean up after going No 2. Staying at a hotel which doesnt have a bidet or jet spray option means I need to keep one small empty bottle in the bathroom to use as a mug.
Also, re DNDs, most hotels in India at least have a policy that if a room is on DND for two consecutive shifts, someone needs to check the same in case of any medical issues being faced by the guest in question.
Yes, it would be difficult to find a bidet in many hotels in the UK and Ireland for example. I firmly believe those Japanese toilets should be standard worldwide. They’re excellent! I hear what you’re saying about DND – I can understand checking guest safety when it comes to duty of care. Good point you make there! Thanks for the comment!
Why when I arrive at a Hilton reception desk is there an array of business cards with the email of various staff members, and yet on the individual hotel web site there is not one email address if you want to contact them prior to booking or arrival? They are obviously not secret.
For me, in the UK, this is a particularly irksome for foreign hotels, particularly in the US.
That’s very true, the hotel web sites really make sure there’s almost no way to easily e-mail them. Even worse is when there is an e-mail address and it doesn’t work, an experience I had with a hotel in Dublin recently. Thanks for the comment!
I just had the problem with the loud cleaning ladies. Staying near the Phoenix airport, every morning while one would clean the room opposite mine, the others would stand in the hall talking and drinking their coffee and blocking my door. Gosh, get to work or be quiet.
I will throw out what will be the oddest pet peeve: unlined waste baskets. If I have something like a banana peel, I don’t want to have it stick to the bottom of the garbage can in my room.
I like that one about the unlined waste baskets! I kinda feel for the housekeeping staff in that situation as well as they’ll have to really get in there with their cloth if you throw anything like banana peels in there. Nice one, thanks for the comment!
I do not like emailed receipts. Paper is better. Or emailed receipts without a header.
E-mailed receipts without a header? I don’t really understand the reasoning…
My pet peeve is the growing trend of wall mounted dispensers found in hotel rooms showers. Here is what I wrote about it: https://bit.ly/2VomiNF
I also don’t like them, because I have to squeeze or press where someone else has been. That being said, I do understand it from an environmental perspective as it’s creating a whole lot less plastic waste. Great point, thanks for the comment!
Pet peeves in hotels: Bad bathroom lighting especially bathrooms that only have harsh overhead lighting & bathroom showers that have no light in the shower. Sharp edged sink countertop in bathroom. HVAC units in rooms that have curtains directly over the blower vents so the cool air /heat blows directly into the curtains. Electrical outlets that are behind heavy furniture / can’t be accessed. Rooms without a printed TV channel guide. Thermostats that don’t work, are confusing to use or hard to find. Unplugged lights / TVs. Lights that don’t work / burned out bulbs. Closets with only a few… Read more »
How could I forget the thermostats! I agree with you 100% there – I like a cool enough room when I am sleeping and having to spend ages trying to work it out really irritates me. I’m not stupid but some of them are just baffling. That’s a pretty good list – I hear you on the TV Guide as well. Flipping through channels to see what’s there is no fun and a waste of time. Thanks for the comment!
My pet peeve is dirty bathrooms. They are all hard surfaces and should be simple to clean well. I do not want to see other people’s hair, because if the cleaning crew missed that, what else did they miss? Did they replace the possibly used towels? Did they replace the pillow cases or sheets?
I can completely understand this. I get how something can be missed, but hotel rooms should be spotless. Unfortunately, it does vary a lot from place to place. Great point, thanks for the comment!