Okay, this is priced in Canadian dollars, but still. $6.49 for a bottle of water? No matter how elegant it looks on the nightstand, I’ll drink sink water first. Who would open this? What’s the point?
Hotel oddity #13
Hotel hypocrisy. This is certainly not unique to the Delta hotel in Newfoundland, but that is where I was struck by the pretense and posturing of those righteous signs in bathrooms about saving water and saving the planet. What the hotel industry really wants is to save on labor costs.
I’m all for living lightly on our Earth, taking only what’s needed. I believe in the conservation of resources. But some hotels, the Delta St. John’s included, make it impossible to save water. The shower has no flow regulator.
To get hot water, you must run full volume. And in my room, the water pressure was fierce. Far more water than I need or enjoy. Much more than necessary down the drain. Certainly enough to wash an extra towel or two.
Hotel Oddity #12
Pasted onto our Reykjavik hotel bathroom tiles:
Yes, we came out of the shower quite rancid-smelling—and the fragrance lasts. I imagine the locals: “You stink—just took a shower?”
Hotel oddity #11
What could be the purpose of a motion-detector inside a hotel room? Is this a new trend?
This one, in our room at the new Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona, blinked madly whenever we moved. It was a little creepy. I looked around for a hidden video camera.
When I asked reception staff, they explained that the motion sensor allowed them to determine occupancy in case of an emergency. This didn’t make sense to me; an occupant could be incapacitated, overcome by smoke in a fire, for example, or knocked unconscious in an earthquake.
I wrote the hotel, and its Director of Engineering & Loss Prevention replied promptly:
The motion sensor is part of the Inncom-Clipsal guestroom comfort system.
When the guest leaves the guestroom after 20 minutes inactivity the system goes to lighting off and A/C to set point.
When the guest enter in the guestroom the motion sensor activates all lighting memory scenario and A/C to last selected temperature.
That makes sense. And it explains my earlier post, too. In fact, I received two interesting explanations simultaneously. The Mandarin Oriental’s, and a comment from Tom. Tom has a different theory, but added “you’d probably hear claims of being able to report occupancy to firefighters, emergency responders, etc.” Which is exactly what I first heard.
Until they become commonplace (if they do), it’s probably not a bad idea for hotels using these gizmos to post a little note in the room explaining the purpose of them, given the intrusive sense of spying the observant but uninformed guest might feel. On the other hand, the proliferation of notes and commandments in hotel rooms has been irritating me lately. “Watch your step,” “test water temperature,” “towels on the floor,” even pictures of items not to be flushed.
The Mandarin Oriental in Barcelona is a spiffy joint, I might add, in an excellent location.
Hotel Oddity #10
What is this? Anyone have a clue? It was mounted on the inside of our Westin Hotel room door.
I know, I could have asked hotel management. But you know—you check in late, catch an early flight the next morning… There’s not always time to satisfy curiosity.
Hotel Oddity #9
I don’t think a plugged-up hotel bathtub or sink is terribly odd. The number of them we run into though, is. Why doesn’t housekeeping discover them? Shouldn’t they realize that a slow or stopped-up drain needs fixing before a guest arrives? This was the only flaw in our otherwise excellent Paris hotel. It was fixed right away.
Breakfast, I might add, was superb. Shall I name the place? Why not. It was the Holiday Inn Bastille—the joint beside the sex shop.
TV remotes with low or dead batteries, and missing lightbulbs, fall into the same category as slow drains. We run into these as well. Little irritations when you’ve traveled far, maybe checked in late, or early after an overnight flight. Sloppy. Shouldn’t happen in a decent hotel.
Hotel oddity #8
Ever stay in a hotel that tried to make you feel guilty about using the amenities? The beautiful Excel Hotel Tokyu at Tokyo’s Haneda airport pushes hard against guests’ heartstrings with all the hot-button words: forests, children, money, save, environment.
In order to help the global environment, we have implemented our “Green Coin” program. We are asking our guests to return “Green Coin”, which is attached to this card, to the front desk when the amenities in your room have not been used.
Our “Green Coin” will hopefully decreases the amount of disposable amenities used in all Tokyu Hotels.
The more coins we are able to collect from our guests, the more money we will donate to the OISCA Foundation’s “Children’s Forests” program and “Tokyu Hotels Green Coin Forests.
Am I bad if I shampoo my hair?
Hotel Oddity #7
What’s that spray bottle hanging in the closet of our Tokyo hotel room? It wears a gold necklace from which its explanation dangles.
“Resesh” is a fabric freshener with green tea to remove unpleasant odors from your room and clothes.
Sniff, sniff…Â does my room stink?
Refresh with Resesh.
Uh…no thanks.
.
Hotel oddity #6
See anything wrong with the chain lock on this door at Miami’s Radisson Mart Plaza Hotel? It’s mounted backwards! Upside-down. It’s useless this way and, worse, gives a false sense of security. Another serious security risk.
Do all the rooms have useless chain latches, or only our room, 612? A polite letter to management brought only a generic “We appreciate your recent message.”
Hotel oddity #5
The Hilton Tokyo-Bay, aka Japan’s Disneyland Hilton, was shockingly behind the times when we visited. Our paper electronic room keys had our room number printed right on them, instead of on an envelope. That’s a serious security risk. This was two years ago. Anyone know what their keys look like today?