Hotel Peeves: A Charged iPhone or a Quiet Night? Gimme Power
October 7, 2011 at 6:00 am carryingonblog 2 comments
by Becky
I don’t claim to be any more authoritative on hotel quality than any of my fellow weary business travellers, but I do know this: My number one hotel complaint is about power. Specifically, iPhone power.
It’s such a simple, easy thing, and yet my unscientific personal study of hundreds of hotels suggests that only 1 in 10 or so gets it right. Put an outlet next to the bed. Preferably at table level, close to the headboard. Not at the unseen end of a melange of lamp and clock cords that lead to a mystery spot somewhere deep behind the bed along the floor. Not on the other side of the room. Put it near my pillow, so my woefully short iPhone charger can reach it while I drift off to sleep playing Sudoku and so I can check my email first thing in the morning after I wake up to the sound of iPhone crickets on the only alarm I trust to be set correctly when I travel. This, hotels, is not hard to do.
Now, I admit, perhaps I am alone in this demand. Earlier this week USA Today reported that noise is the number one complaint from hotel guests, beating out even smelly rooms and rude staff. Crowne Plaza has snore patrols in some of its British properties now! (Good thing my Dad is prone to domestic travel only.) Sure, I’ve heard a snore or two, but man, do I love a charged iPhone.
So fess up, Carrying On readers. What’s your biggest hotel pet peeve? (And remember, if you’re the one who never hears your hotel neighbor snoring, well, consider the old joke, “My mom tells me there’s an idiot on every bus…. but I ride busses all the time and I never see one…”)
Entry filed under: Becky's Ruminations, Business Travel, Mobile, Travel Technology, Uncategorized. Tags: Becky Waller, iPhone, pet peeves, Rearden Commerce.
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1.
Elizabeth Farmer | October 7, 2011 at 6:16 am
I agree! Lack of accessible plugs in well-thought out places is right up there on my list too – along with insufficient lighting. What’s up with all the 60-watt bulbs and dark lampshades? I have been known on occasion to travel with my own 100-watters in my bag.
2.
Michelle De Costa | October 7, 2011 at 1:36 pm
loud, heavy hotel doors are probably my biggest one and even when I am the one trying to quietly leave at 4am to catch a flight the only way to close the door from the outside is to give it a good slam. Ugh, I don’t like hearing it or being the one slamming it. And agreed, the lack of outlets near the bed is a nuisance (love my whitenoise app to drown out the heavy doors)