Please ban Barn doors on the bathrooms. I don't want to hear or smell any of that!
That W Beijing bathroom is quite a choice. Kind of reminds me of the room I had at the Conrad Osaka, but at least the Conrad had solid wooden sliding doors to close off the whole bathroom area and the toilet was in an actual water closet by the front door, not in the bathroom.
In general I've found the in-room bathrooms in US and Japanese hotels to offer plenty of privacy, the worst one that I've experienced was a base room in the Hyatt Regency Kyoto with a frosted glass window from the bed area into the shower. It's far better than the all-inclusives I've been to in the Caribbean where both the toilet and shower area have actual openings with no glass or anything between them and the bed.
Looks like mine have all been covered
- Destination fees
- Lack of outlets near the bed (I have to carry an extension cord just for this reason)
- Skimped breakfast benefits (looking at you, Hilton and Marriott)
- HVAC systems that run off motion sensors, especially if they’re not placed in sight of the bed and at a level where they can detect motion
- HVAC that doesn’t allow a constant fan to run
No more annoying pet peeve for me than hotel gyms not open 24/7. I found this to be prevalent throughout hotels in Brazil, especially in the premium and luxury segments. I questioned the front desk at several of these properties about it and they said the reason is they employ gym attendants to help and assist guests so the gym can only be open when staff are available. They said the gym attendants provide personalized service to the guests and are part of the hotel's philosophy of providing great customer service and always having staff near by to help guests. Great, but I think between having a staffed gym open 8 am to 6 pm or having a non-staffed gym open 24/7 most guests would choose the latter.
I agree with the TVs being turned on; almost all luxury hotels do this (looking at you, Mandarin Oriental, Peninsula, Park Hyatt, some FS, some independents (Hello, Shutters on the Beach), etc.). Though I will say that the music, when turned on, is usually somewhat soothing to listen to in a Zen sort of way, but can get old after about 40 times hearing it.
And screw destination fees, they are insulting and offensive and grotesque. Sorry, Las Vegas, but your business model turned into "fuck the customer." And now it's bled, seemingly, to all of the USA's major cities. Perhaps the downturn in tourist and business travel dollars will help you to stop trying to manipulate prices on search engines.
What I LOVE LOVE LOVE is the Park Hyatt Sydney's bathroom setups where one can turn on the shower heads *without being under the water.* Genius design, and if I were ever in the market for a bathroom redesign at home, I would include this feature as a non-negotiable must have.
Showers need to be operable without being under the water. Showerheads also need to be detachable. How else can one's crack be adequately cleaned?
Add these to the list:
Knocking on my door when the Do Not Disturb Sign is displayed
Small Bath Towels
Joining Room Doors
My pet peeve...hotels that allow pets!
Steve didn't say he doesn't like animals. He said he doesn't like hotels that allow them. Animals do in fact shed and increase the wear and tear, not to mention create issues for human guests who may be allergic.
I also feel very strongly, for the sake of the animals, that frequent travelers do NOT own pets. Why own a pet just to send one to boarding/dogsitting/etc. all the time?
And I think that people shouldn't reference their dangly bits in their screen name, but we can't all get what we want. Also, when I first moved to my town, there was a last minute problem with the place I was meant to move into and a hotel that allowed my well mannered dog and his less well mannered human stay was a godsend.
The photo of the coffee setup, with chemicals instead of dairy, reminds me that the same kind of packs with half-and-half are available (but probably for a few cents more).
Regent Hong Kong has that transparent bathroom setting where you can see everything while taking a shower.
That’s the biggest miss that I’ve ever seen in a recently renovated hotel. It’s not-very-family-oriented.
If hotels are going to have wacky shower setups, could they at least include conveniently-posted instructions?
All of the things you described as well as the many issues brought up in the comments! I'd like to also add that I have seen a relatively recent trend of rooms that have no drawers for clothes, or places to put your clothes in general. This is fine for a quick business trip, but for longer stays it is super inconvenient. There is also the automatic lights that turn on when you move or enter the bathroom, and can't be turned off - not very convenient if you have others in the room who don't want lights waking them in the night. Also hate the frosted glass bathroom doors which allow light in the night. And want to give extra special shout out to the bathroom privacy issue that was raised - yikes! Such a terrible trend. I was shocked by the lack of privacy at the Conrad Seoul, but there are even worse set ups. Sometimes I think the folks who design these rooms don't consider the fact that there might be more than one person staying in the room, or that this person might not be a spouse - could be a work associate, child, friend, etc.
Electrical outlets/USB ports need to be available on BOTH sides of the bed. Equal access for all parties is in my hotel bill of rights.
And a new one for me: hotels that when you leave the room, reset your thermostat to some default setting. Had this happen recently with a 6 day stay in London. Very annoying.
How about asking me if I’ve stayed at the hotel before, when they know if I’ve stayed at the hotel before? It’s nice when they say welcome back.
I frequently get "welcome back" at hotels I've never stayed at before. Perhaps they say it to everyone, perhaps they're just confused.
They ask this because there is a chance you might have stayed there before but the room wasn’t registered to your loyalty program, either because it was registered under another profile or was not linked at all. Especially for legacy hotels where you might have stayed as a kid with your family and returning as an adult.
The disappearance of closets that are being replaced by open frame hanging systems. I stayed in a hotel room for 10 days and could not unpack as that would have been seeing my clothes hanging openly in the room throughout the stay.
The fact that in most cases, the liquid in the body wash gel bottle and shampoo bottle are one and the same.
Having worn out towels still in circulation. This I noticed at a couple of five star hotels.
Not changing bedsheets, even after a few days. In four different hotels, I stayed for a week plus and I had to instruct them to change the bedsheets after a few days. Most told me their policy was to only change the sheets at the end of the stay, even if it was a long, long stay.
I'm with you on all of these, except for showers with weak water pressure.
While there are areas of the planet where people live with abundant water resources, most of us do not. I abhor water waste, whether it's golf courses in the desert, sprinklers running in the rain, or people who can't brush their teeth without the faucet running.
Along the same lines, hotels that have shower systems that only operate at only one level of pressure (usually more than necessary) deserve all the excessive water bills they get.
Not sure how much much water low pressure saves when you have to take a much longer shower (as Ben mentioned). It's seems like another "feel good" program that makes some happy about themselves, despite the reality I do agree about not using sprinlers in the rain, and on the whole time whie brushing teeth. But, the low flow shower heads are nonsense and it takes so much longer to get soap off.
This is minor, but you know how most hotels have the in-room TV turned on when you first enter the room, with some sort of music or advertisement?
For some reason, I find this cool. I like when I enter the room and the TV says "Welcome [my name]," especially when it's also displaying something useful like the weather forecast. Fortunately, I haven't encountered a hotel TV displaying obnoxious ads "a la TikTok/YouTube." But, I'm sure Marriott and Hilton, etc., might be taking notes already.
The clogged bathroom sink and shower drains that the housekeeper somehow didn’t notice.
The loose toilet seat that the housekeeper somehow didn’t notice.
Best in-room coffee setup/service we ever have experienced was at the 3 1/2-star Hotel on North in Pittsfield, MA. Forget the Folgers and say no to the Keurig machine ... how about truly fresh ground coffee, sourced from a mom-and-pop coffee bar down the street? Classy!
Oh, I forgot another one: Hotels that charge a fee to pay their bill with a credit card, sometimes including the chain’s own card. When posting a review I will always lower the review score by one star and state the reason why. If everyone did this in their reviews then the hotels might drop this stupid fee.
Oh, I forgot another one: Hotels that charge a fee to pay their bill with a credit card, sometimes including the chain’s own card. When posting a review I will always lower the review score by one star and state the reason why. If everyone did this in their reviews then the hotels might drop this stupid fee.
A small cc fee is the norm in Australia. Fortunately, it is always less than the 3% kickback my card gives me.