Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Hotel Problems? Read This!


“Cleanliness is next to godliness”,  or so you’d think when it comes to hotel on-suite bathrooms. After reading the comments below I feel positively grimy and will make sure I have a good shower before and after I stay in a hotel again !!! Below are some of the comments made by our readers:
Event Peeps: For Live Event Industry Professionals
  • Hair dryers that have the curly cord that is not long enough to enable you to dry the hair on top of your head and no plug near to the mirror in the bedroom to enable you to see whilst you dry your hair!
  • Nothing like cold tile floors and shower tubs/floors to give you athletes feet…. don’t forget your flip flops
  • Drains that don’t drain or plumbing that’s faulty, leaky in a bathroom, There’s nothing Like taking a shower to step out into 3 inches of water due to leaks in plumbing etc….
  • Toilet flushers that you have to push up instead of pressing down (more common in some hotels in the UK – most others around the world seem to have a button).
  • Hotels that don’t provide shower caps. I use the caps to cover the remote control. Too long shower curtains,
  • Water for sale 5 bucks
  • The non-draining shower drain. Showering with water over your ankles.
  • When the toilet tissue has been folded in to a point, what’s that all about?
  • The “not so friendly” temperature control of the shower. I also dread of shower curtains touching me while taking a shower because I never know how clean they are.
  • The Kleenex flower! Seriously – first of all, I don’t want to use Kleenex someone has touched. Secondly, when I really need one, it’s when I’ve sneezed and I have to get past this useless bundle of tissues to get one I can use!
  • I hate the Kleenex flower too; you never know where the maid’s hands have been before they did that. Perhaps they just finished “cleaning” the toilet and then they decide to make a nice Kleenex flower for you. YUCK! I try to avoid using the hotel’s Kleenex at all cost especially if the Kleenex box is sitting near the toilet and all those germs from the toilet floating and landing on the exposed Kleenex. However, if I have to use one I will at least pull 3 of them out and use the 4th one.
  • My pet peeve is shower controls. That knob sticking out of the wall that resembles a Packard hood ornament always operates in a clever and creative way — not exactly matching my mood when I want to step into a shower. And sometimes (I know this sounds weird, but …) I actually like to adjust the temperature while in the shower — without needing an owner’s manual. Here’s an idea … one knob coded red for hot, another one coded blue for cold. That’s it. Simple and effective.
Event Planning & Event Management – the 1st Group for Event Professionals
  • As long as the bed, pillows and linen are fresh and in excellent condition; the bathroom is spotlessly clean – with a shower with plenty of water pressure (no cheap water saving shower roses), and finally, drinking glasses must be washed properly (not rinsed in the bathroom basin and dried with a hand towel), I am pretty happy.
  • Also, as a woman in her 40’s (gulp!) that wears glasses – it is impossible to put makeup on in most bathrooms because the mirror is so far away and I simply can’t see that far!
  • My PET PEEVE is hair in the bathtub and shower….
  • Skimpy bath towels
  • Toilet paper roll which is almost empty and no spare;
  • No conditioner for the shower – or “conditioning shampoo” only. Yuck! And no hair dryer, or one that has very little power.
  • Love having bathrobes,
  • I also don’t like to see mold on the bathroom floors or showers.
  • Nowhere to put your “stuff” in the bathroom
  • The lack of properly cleaned towels
  • I hate mildew around the tub. I just left a hotel suite that had mildew around a quarter of the tub. It took 2 calls to have it removed…in fact, they recaulked it. Why couldn’t that have been done prior to my arrival??
  • *Rough (cheap) tissues…because if they are rough, they’re NOT Kleenex.
  • Remember that everyone ISN’T tall when make-up mirrors are installed…being 5 ft. tall, I usually can’t reach them.
Food Service Professionals Network
  • I tend to inspect the bathroom as soon as I arrive and if that is not pristine it makes me want to check out!!!
  • Stopped up drains. It’s amazing how often this occurs even in the best hotels.
  • No hair dryer or hair dryer does not work.
  • Anything dirty including towels left on the floor from the previous guest (4 star property)
  • Rooms not stocked with soap. (Room service forgot) Means having to go down (wet?) and get some, or tip someone to bring it up.
  • Missing bathroom amenities, towels, etc
  • Why do they all close the stopper in the tub? You have to reach down to open for a shower?
  • I also hate Hotels which regulate the flow of the water in the shower (Crowne Plaza trick); this means you cannot turn the shower on to full flow. The manufacturer of the show would not have made the setting if the shower was not designed for it? If they have got an overspecified shower unit for the rest of the bathroom facility then that is poor planning.
HOSPITALITY SUPERSTARS (Employers, Recruiters & Hospitality Superstars)
  • Should smell clean, Mirror cleaned, and this is just me, and it concerns design, I hate when the toilet is right next to the tub
THAT’s Professional (Travel, Hospitality, Aviation & Tourism)
  • I always go straight to the bathrooms, and check out if the tubs are clean, and if they have grout issues e.g. mould
Hotel Technologies & Software
  • No mixer tap in the bathroom
  • No space in the bathroom for my toiletry bag
  • No hot water after 7am
World Tourism Network
  • Showers/baths far from vanity areas and hard to reach bath towels
  • Wasteful small bottles of bath amenities and hotels that only provide 1 set per day
  • Some hotels are doing a great job by still using branded, quality items but with
  • Soap, shampoo, and conditioner dispensers in the shower
  • Lack of lighted magnifying mirrors for make-up and grooming. I have to stop now, I’m get irritated just thinking about how easy it would be for hotels to do a better job in these areas.
  • Bathroom lighting. Amazing that even 5 star hotels aren’t designed and equipped with proper lighting, and magnified mirrors in the bath, as well as full length mirrors. As the population ages, and hotels spend millions on renovation, quality is still not a given.
So, there you have it. Every fortnight I ask our hoteliers to respond to these comments. Maybe one day they will or do they simply not care for anything other than profits?
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HT Editor

1 comment:

  1. These are helpful tips. You have a nice blog. Thank you for posting it. Some of the features i am making sure in choosing a hotel are the room itself, its cleanliness, the foods and the amenities.

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