Simple things that make a hotel great

[perthdaddy]

I am Qantas WP, so naturally I was happy to accept (W) Lifetime Patinum from Starwood Hotels this year!
For the past fourteen years I have been unable to fault any of their properties (except one or two in the US) around the world. All of "life's little luxuries" mentioned by others are provided to Starwood's WP guests in the rooms or executive lounges.
Yep, life is sweet!

 

[Toula92122]

I crave a fitted sheet. My biggest annoyance would have to be hotels that put sheets on beds that clearly do not fit. My husband is tall and we like to untuck the bed and usually are left with a couple of inches exposed at the bottom.

Do away with baths over showers and just give me a decent shower. Make a room with a bath a special request.

My final pet hate is being assigned a disabled room. I hate the height of the toilet. I know I am getting on in years but I am not that old.

 

[browski]

1. When the hotel asks you if you'd like a Taxi, it should be a real taxi and not the in-house overpriced vehicle.
2. Power points should also be available around the restaurant/bar, for the morning and evening laptop needs.
3. The phrase and practice of "plus-plus" should be internationally outlawed. When I want to rent a room or purchase the buffet lunch, I just need to know the money that will be coming from my pocket. I am not a human calculator, and I don't like the feeling of being mislead. See Malaysia and the US.
4. Extra magnetic room key because the one that is issued will surely fail by day 2.
5. Hotels where staff wait to be approached by the guest. In India hotels, I swear that the staff are instructed to offer assistance to anyone sighted within a 100 metre radius. GO AWAY!
6. Showers that do not have those stupid, useless hand-held cable shower heads. They inevitably fail at their primary task of remaining fixed in their holster and pouring water upon me.
7. Hotels that do not say "you must book it on-line" when you wish to extend your stay by 1 day.
8. Great hotels do not have 10.00am checkout times. See Australia.

 

[Pakkret]

Good bedside, desk and overhead lighting...too many hotels don't have sufficient light for readers or those needing to work in the rooms.

 

[Ivanhoe3079]

All of the above plus TWO umbrellas in the closet (especially when in the tropics... although also, maybe, for visitors to our home town at the moment).

Cheers ツ

 

[Scout]

Breakfast included buffet style

Wifi at no charge, as in many hotels overseas

RAPID checkin and greeting by name

 

[Simo]

Breakfast included buffet style

Wifi at no charge, as in many hotels overseas

RAPID checkin and greeting by name

I do like the personal greeting but it takes a while to get that acknowledgement from the staff.

I use to stay at the same motel every week and after a few weeks I would get a personal greeting and the keys to the room.

They use to always give me one of 3 or 4 rooms which was there refurbished rooms and close to the bar and in a quiet part of the motel.

 

[drron]

I do like the personal greeting but it takes a while to get that acknowledgement from the staff.

I use to stay at the same motel every week and after a few weeks I would get a personal greeting and the keys to the room.

They use to always give me one of 3 or 4 rooms which was there refurbished rooms and close to the bar and in a quiet part of the motel.

Not always.I have worked at Hervey Bay/Bundy for 4 weeks recently.The second week I stayed at the motel in Bundy it was-"welcome back Ron.Take some milk.I have you in the same room."

 

[Fantic125]

Judging by these posts, I'm easily pleased.

Clean sheets, carpet where I don't have the feeling I need to wash my feet before I go to bed, reasonable air conditioning (yes, hotel in Daejeon, I'm looking at you), and reasonable wifi access.

Most of the time I'm out of the room working on site, so as long as it's clean and functional, I'm usually happy.

 

[JohnK]

A clean room, would prefer a useable fridge and some bottled water....

 

[JessicaTam]

I would like a shower that I can stand under, not look at eye level.
I will also add my vote to the oft mentioned decent room lighting and power point access.


Sent from my iThing.
Why, because iCan.

 

[cove]

I am a fan of Westin Heavenly beds or latex beds.
Firm pillow.
Extra power switches by the bed head
A small fridge for your personal use rather than one to sell you stuff.
A room with a view and a balcony.
Mood lighting
Heated towel rails and bathroom floors and a heating and cooling system that does not take a week to work out.
A shower that has not been designed by a water saving fiend.
Yes that's right......just like home!

 

[bPeteb]

I could combine so many of these to one very long wish list but my room wish is sheer curtains.

I stayed in a studio at Oaks on Collins earlier in the year. On top of the bizarre glass bathroom (about as a big as a wardrobe) the room only had block out roller blinds on the windows. Not that there were any shenanigans going on in the room but I hated that I had to either have blinds down or it was "Hello Rialto". There were some sheer curtains in the room, but they were just around the bed (right around it).

Oh, and the very small tv was maybe two metres up the wall. Very odd looking up at it from the sofa!

The weirdest room I have ever stayed in!

Same experience recently in Bangkok at The Heritage Hotel near Sala Daeng BTS. A corner suite with full windows down both sides and only blackout curtains. Lights on or "hello people on the platform".

My biggest dislike is the wrong tv aspect thing. Never experienced it overseas so why is it such an issue here? Even the Intercontinental in Sydney offered me stretched people for my morning news. Bad enough at the local pub, ridiculous in a five star hotel

 

[OPERACAT]

We should demand free WiFi, why is it complimentary at every Coffee house but not at all hotels?

 

[ajca]

At the Conrad in Koh Samui, I noticed that every day the housekeeping staff would sort all the toiletry bottles on the bathroom benchtop in ascending order of height. I thought this was amazing attention to detail.

I considered leaving a note asking them to alphabetise them the next day, and then sort them by country of origin the next...

 

[agedpom]

A shower that is NOT in the bathtub
Sufficient lighting so that I (and my wife) can read in bed.
Sufficient easy chairs for two to sit in comfort watching TV.
FREE Wi Fi

 

[suze2000]

Finally a thread where I can have some input!

My needs are simple: CLEAN room. Good linen on the bed, and a bed that has some softness AND support, and full-size towels in the bathroom, not tiny handkerchief-sized ones. After that, everything else is nice, but not a requirement. A decent shower, don't care for toiletries as I must use all my own, a news channel that isn't Fox news, several spare power points, coathangers that are not those annoying anti-theft ones, a view I don't hate, space for TWO people's bags to be laid out and opened.

Our recent trip to Europe gave us some unexpected luxuries: hubby liked the nespresso machines almost everywhere, but preferred the type with coffee "puff" things (not sure of the brand), free (or nearly free) wifi, nice soap for handwashing.

Things which I now deem a necessity, but didn't before: decent toilet paper (it seems the Dutch like theirs particularly scratchy, no matter what you are paying for the room), and air conditioning that will cool the room to less than 25C (France, I'm looking at you! Two hotels, both of which required us to open the windows to the mosquitoes to make it cool enough to sleep - and staff that looked at us as if we were mad to want it cooler when we asked why this was so).

 

[Memsahib]

I love to find:
Shutters or double glazing so that road noise is shut out especially after a 24 hour flight.
Again shutters or curtains that give total block out of light especially in countries that have short nights.
Enough coat hangers so you don't have to double things up (I always pack some but it would be great not to have to!)
Free WIFI in this day and age it should be provided just as power is.
Fresh fruit in a bowl at the lift always seems a nice touch.
Hotels that are completely non-smoking

 

[SeatBackForward]

One recurring theme on this thread as been free, or cheap wifi...obviously Hotels haven't done this yet because they know something..
Would you change your choice of hotel just for the wifi??

 

[chrisb]

One recurring theme on this thread as been free, or cheap wifi...obviously Hotels haven't done this yet because they know something..
Would you change your choice of hotel just for the wifi??

Yes.. I just returned from SIN and hotel was picked, in part, due to the free wifi. I'm hunting for other hotels at the moment and free wifi is high on the list of preferences, especially when I'm in another country.

Free wifi should be like free water and power in hotel rooms.