I opened my email this morning and read an email by Dawn Gilbertson, one of the travel reporters for the WSJ, about her hotel wishlist she created after a trip to Europe. There were some good ideas in here, especially about how to work the lighting. I can't tell you the number of times I have had to flip every switch on and off trying to figure out how to turn on a light. The list was in my email so I can't link to it, but I'm inserting it here for your pleasure and edification.
So just curious—what's in your hotel wishlist?
My hotel wishlist
by Dawn Gilbertson
We all have things about hotel rooms that are mildly annoying or even drive us a little bonkers. My personal list is overflowing after spending 12 consecutive nights in hotels from New York to London to Budapest to Rome to Nice on this trip. So I created a hotel wish list. Believe it or not, none include the showers.
Lighting instructions. You can’t always have a butler show you around your room. Hotels need to print out instructions on how to operate the lights and provide them at check-in and put little signs in the room. Do you need your room key to operate the lights? If so, where is the device you slide it into? I fumbled around at two hotels trying to get the lights on before finding the place for the key card. In cases where you don’t use your key card, we need a guide on any central switches and/or a “be patient’’ sign if you do have to hit four switches plus a button on the desk lamp cord to get the lights (true story).
Better outlet locations and choices. Few things are more maddening before your late-night doom scrolling than not having a place by the bed to charge your phone. And a USB outlet will work, but so many phones today, my new iPhone included, need a USB-C outlet. I found it in just one hotel on my trip. (Tip for trips abroad: make sure your converters have a USB-C outlet. They are a lifesaver!)
Coffee-maker cheat sheets. I had to call the front desk at my grand hotel in Budapest to figure out where the power button was on the big Nespresso machine. (It was in a different place than the small Nespresso machine at my previous hotel on this trip.) The front-desk employee had a script ready because so many people call to ask. In Rome, I had to fight with the Illy coffee machine to get the pod in.
Oh, and please add more creamer to the coffee set-up so no one has to trot down to the lobby in their pajamas or bother room service for more. (Points, by the way, to the Rome hotel, which had the creamer stored in the mini-fridge.)
Bigger garbage cans. What’s with the tiny garbage cans in the bathroom and by the desk? Mine were overflowing on more than one occasion.
Clearly mark those minibar items. No, not the ones in the minibar itself. Those are self-explanatory and often automatically added to your bill if you touch it. I’m talking about the collection of items on the counter by the minibar and elsewhere in the hotel room. I mistook a small bag of potato chips and some nuts in Italy as freebies. (The hotel did include a complimentary bottle of Chianti and water on the desk so it wasn’t a leap.)
Upgrade your bath towels. I don’t mean the quality as much as the size. Major kudos to the folks at the Hyatt Regency Albert Embankment in London for the biggest hotel bath towels I’ve seen. I couldn’t believe them at first and would have bought some if I could.
End the elevator juggle. I’m not sure there is a solution for this but I can’t count how many times I had to put down a handful of things (coffee, a banana, a soda, my purse or backpack) so I could scan my key card for the elevator to stop at my floor. Or, the times I had to stop and dig for the card before I could hop on the elevator. I appreciate the safety reasons behind this but there must be an easier way.
