What are your hotel pet peeves?

On April 14, 2011 · Leave a Comment

A hotel room in Beijing.

Back in November, I wrote about my air travel pet peeves, so now it’s time for my hotel pet peeves. I don’t count my hotel nights each year like I do airline miles, but they are quite a few. As was the case with air travel, my Top 10 hotel pet peeves include behavior by both employees and customers.

Here is the list:

1. Thin walls through which you can hear everything going on in the adjacent rooms.

2. Hotel guests slamming doors and shouting in the hallway, as if they are the only people in the building.

3. Housekeeping staff talking loudly to each other in the hallway during morning cleaning service, apparently oblivious that some guests are still trying to sleep.

4. Clogged sinks, showers and bathtubs that take forever to drain.

5. Finding someone else’s hair on the sink — and other places, for that matter.

6. Paying a room rate that includes “full American breakfast,” only to find out that you can have one item on the menu and must pay extra if you want the buffet.

7. Guests smoking in non-smoking rooms, even after they have signed a piece of paper warning of a fine at check-in.

8. Hotels charging a “connection fee” when you call a toll-free phone number.

9. Waiting for a hotel airport shuttle that you were told was on the way half an hour ago.

10. Receptionists refusing to give you an extra hour to check out when you checked in very late the night before.