Hotel Living
17Apr2006
I do a lot of business travel, so I spend a lot of my time in hotels at the moment.
Normally it’s not as nice a place as the Hotel Monaco I stayed at this weekend – usually it is a characterless business hotel where all the corridors and rooms look the same.
But regardless of the hotel, there are always some things which are the same:
- The leaky sink plug. You would think that in this day and age engineers could design a sink plug mechanism which actually keeps water in the sink. The UK is archaic when it comes to engineering for convenience, but the somewhat prehistoric mechanism used there – a rubber plug – is still the most effective way to stop a sink. And enable me to shave in peace.
- Dearth of Electrical Outlets.Even business traveller hotels lack in this regard. There are never enough outlets. I cannot charge my camera battery, run my laptop from the mains and iron my shirt at the same time. Or there are sufficient outlets but they are all in one corner of the room (the farthest from where you need it), and I end up ironing on the windowsill or on the bed. Yes, I always iron my own clothes in hotels, so this is important. And why do the outlets always spark when I pull the plug? Is there an electrical contractor somewhere who specialises in hotel jobs and advertises a ‘single, faulty power source at reduced costs’? He must be busy…
- No Wireless in the Room.Yes, you have wireless in the lobby. Yes, you have wireless in the restaurant. You even have wireless in the pool. But in the room? Forget it. They just don’t seem to offer this anywhere I ever stay. I am reduced to using ‘poor man’s wireless’, which is my 25 foot network cable to allow me to blog in bed.
What gripes do you have about hotels?
I’m actually getting ready to interview for a job today that might have me travelling a lot… But for now I don’t travel much. I would have to say it’s the smell that gets me. They always smell just a little… musty or something. And I can always hear other people. Like the walls really aren’t that thick.
My experiences with hotel rooms are that of the lack of adequate space. For instance:
1) the bathroom (or water closet) is really just that…a closet. You barely have enough elbow room. God-forbid the toilet paper is attached to the furthest wall from where you are sitting.
2) The lack of space on the bathroom sink. There is incredibly LARGE and oversized basin (you could wash your laundry in these) but the countertops lack the space you need to place your hair dryer on so it won’t slip into the basin where you would ultimately electrocute yourself or cause a power outage in the entire hotel.
3) Lack of walking space. I don’t know about you but I find myself walking sideways between places such as between the armoire and the bed, or from the bed to the wall, or in between the two king-size beds.
4) The lack of closet space. I can’t understand why they don’t simply supply “regular” hangers either. I don’t particularly care for the hangers with the round circular ball at the top which you have to manipulate to remove from the stationery base on the hanger rod.
5) The hallways are certainly much to be desired. You could scale the walls with one foot on one wall and the other on the other wall and use your hands to push you along to get from one end to the other end.
6) The skimpy small-capacity size lotions, shampoo, and conditioners. Are we bathing babies here?
Just a few to name!
Nice photo once more, I would never think a hotel corridor could make such a photo!
So, hotel complains:
1) no good corridors for photos!
2) I would agree with aimee about the smell.
3) the baby-shampoos have long driven me to forget about the option and always carry my own.
I usually use hotels on vacation and not for work, so I have limited demands.
i don’t like business travels, therefore i have 0 travels for my job. But i love small hotels, i even go stay in hotels in Paris knowing my apartment is only 20 mins away. It is so much fun, you can check in and check out and pretend to be on vacation in your own city.
i stayed in a room in hobart that smelt suspiciously of urine. every time i came back into the room i would be hit with this waft….i tried to tell myself it wouldn’t be…but deep down i know the truth…
Simple. The worst part of hotel living is sleeping in a bed that has been slept in by hundreds, if not thousands, of complete strangers. Call me crazy, but that’s just yucky – especially after reading all those articles about the spread of bedbugs, of all things, in NYC hotels. Ewwwwwwww.
I am crazy afraid of the sheets and the bedspread. And the remote control. All I can think is porn and sex have been had in this room – and not by me! To alleviate my fears, somewhat, I don a surgical mask and latex gloves to remove the sheets and bedspread from the bed. I sleep in my own sleep-sack I have brought with me. Furthermore, I ask for no housekeeping to ensure the bed will not be made up again with the icky bed-clothes. I’ll be speaking with my therapist about this in more detail tomorrow. Thanks for bringing it up….
Aimee – good luck. Yes, thin walls are always an issue. Living in Bermuda gets me so oblivious to musty smells that I wouldn’t notice them in a hotel room.
Annie – the toilet paper on the far wall is a classic. I bet hotel bathroom designers have a chuckle every time they design another bathroom. The hangers bug me too.
e.i. – I love corridors in hotels – I am always taking snaps of them. I probably have at least twenty that aren’t on my flickr site. I don’t mind baby shampoos – they are free, after all…
ana va havana – being on vacation in your home town is definitely a great thing to do.
shaz – thanks for the imagery…nice !
sporty/monqueii – I had never really thought about the thousands of people who had slept (and done other things) in the same bed…now I think about it it’s not too nice. I may have to invest in a sleep sack myself.
I hate hearing the other people, and I hate that they are all basocally designed the same; they have the same layout with the same artists who do the paintings on the wall…
I also hate that the showers usually have bad water pressure–Although the NY NY in Vegas had the best shower.
i once had a tv that kept switching on by itself. given that it was in london and the building was older than my grandmother, i ran out to the reception desk in my pyjamas and screamed at the clueless guy.
they changed my room and the tv there did the same thing. i pulled out the plug and threw the duvet over it and checked out as soon as i could.
mini driver – the thing about being one of those artists, or any contractor working on a hotel with a lot of rooms is the fact that it’s a sweet deal. Imagine the question – ‘Can you provide 400 similarly mundane paintings?’.
frozen ananas – I am not sure about throwing a duvet over a recently switched on TV. Kids, don’t try that at home…
i’ve pulled the plug out, i bear no responsibilities if it is still switched on.
Sorry, too many typing errors in previous comment. Should use preview first. Now, to answer the Q
1.) They always nick my white, self-made towel fabric shower-/bathcap!?? Rome, Brighton, Paris
2.) When I’m not well & specifically call Reception to request: NO CLEANING TODAY, PLEASE + adding the ‘Please do not disturb’ sign, they still come knocking/phoning to know when they can come to clean…
3.) Faulty air conditioning & staff running in & out (every time a new person – & explain ad infinitum) & ALL you want, is to unpack & relax in the privacy of your hotel room.
The corridors!
No matter how far you travel, the corridors always resemble ones to others. It’s so easy to get lost when you are trying to find your way towards the breakfast the following morning… Sigh.