We’ve all got hotel pet hates – I defy anyone to claim otherwise. Sometimes it’s the uncooked food on the room service tray, or that annoying way in which the maid comes to clean the room when you’ve left a ‘do not disturb’ tag on the door.
Whatever yours are, here’s a few of mine that really grind my gears:
Maids entering the room for any reason. When I’m traveling, I enjoy absolute privacy and I like to really “move-in” to a room, as in I will take advantage of any free space for my belongings. Often I will leave the Do Not Disturb sign on the door and maids still barge into the room to try to clean. I don’t clean my bedroom and bathroom every day at home so I definitely don’t need that while I’m traveling. Plus, the maids always like to move all my belongings around and noticing when something I placed has magically moved around the room really irks me.
Long lines at check-out. I usually will stay at a hotel for as long as they will let me, and that means checking out close to check-out time, which is also when many other people are also checking out. Sometimes I have to wait for up to 20 minutes just to hand them back my room key and say “no thanks” for the receipt. Some hotels in Las Vegas have automated this process with computer kiosks where you can deposit your key when you’re checking out. I much prefer that as it’s faster and I can be on my way.
Poor room climate controls. Many times I will enter my new hotel room while wearing my hats and gloves in the middle of summer. The AC doesn’t need to be set to 50ºF, I’m much more comfortable with a room in the mid-70s, especially after showering in the morning. Older climate control units don’t even have a set degree target; you have to keep adjusting the dial until it feels sort of comfortable. In some hotels you can’t change it at all.
Shout shout, I’m letting it all out. These are some of the hotel things I can do without.