What hotels do wrong…. and why.

What Hotels are doing wrong:
https://www.aluxurytravelblog.com/2015/06/25/what-hotels-are-doing-wrong/

I am not an apologist for these issues, but I thought I would explain a bit about them:

Yes, outlets… and yes charging stations. The capital isn’t there to rush into new fads, and by the time it becomes a trend, we’re a few years behind. Even then, the early design of mockets and plugs and charging areas was poor, at best, and there are finally sophisticated and well designed options that can be purchased or retrofitted, and you will see them far more often with new capital improvement projects and renovations. Lighting solutions can be added retroactively, but even with brilliant architects and designers, it’s always a very complex issue to get ambient lighting, task lighting, and general lighting all to work together.

Wifi: unrestricted access leads to illegally downloading and hogging of bandwidth by small % of hotel guests that really slow down the experience for others, so hotels, currently, have little option but restrict bandwidth. I was just in Maui, and both the Montage and Four Seasons have painfully slow “free” luxury internet, but for the movie watching bandwidth you want, there are now tiers of access that hotels charge for. It’s a complex problem, and I think it’s typically the guests that don’t understand that point. But it isn’t lost on us, which is why tiered bandwidth is now available…. however annoying that may be. The typical “free” internet is basically good to check email, and that’s about it.

Newspapers being delivered is part of these arbitrary standards for Forbes and other specific requirements to get listed amongst specific partners. You should be able to opt-out of course, but global standards are being created, so hospitality expected in Dubai or Macau is altering the genuine hospitality in the US / Europe.

Agreed on the towel placards. We have an elegant solution in one property, but it’s still a piece of paper.

The multiple towels are about labor. You put the towels needed for full occupancy, not single occupancy, because it costs too much to have a bellman / housekeeper spending the whole night running up extra towels to rooms. There is a cost of washing used towels, but not as much as paying someone to keep replenishing.

If you need an early breakfast, ask the desk upon check in. Any good hotel will accommodate you, but it doesn’t sound like these are decent hotels….
I don’t know any hotels with smoking rooms, so I can’t comment on that.

I don’t know one single hotel that wouldn’t check someone into a vacant and clean room. That’s just a poorly run hotel. There’s no reason to deny that… it causes problems, makes the guest unhappy, etc. It sounds like a grumpy FD employee… but this is not something I experience.

I think you get what you pay for. Groupon destroyed people’s idea of value. $200 a night can have far more value than $150 a night…. most of these complaints sound like cheap-o motels run by out to lunch non-hotelier.

Keycards: RFID has less moving parts, and doesn’t demagnetize. As someone who has built multiple hotels, and read all the studies, and heard all the urban legends about why they fail…. there isn’t any real consensus on what’s happening there, IMHO. It’s frustrating, but typically… if you want to know the truth, it’s not the card, but user error at the front desk. That’s training. So is early check in as a way we can extend ourselves to our guests….

Training issues…. like those housekeeper training issues of washing towels when the guest didn’t mean for it. That reason is that houskeepers are SCARED TO DEATH of making a mistake… and it’s far more likely they will “hear it” from a guest about not having new towels, than taking a chance and proactively replacing / washing them.

But good read, I thought I would chime in…..

NB: this was a luxury travel blog, so I was surprised about some of these complaints. Typically, none of these are issues in well designed mid range to luxury props. If you are seeking the lowest rate and lowest price out of habit, treating a hotel like a commodity of price and location, this will always be your experience. Spend a few extra dollars, and you will be blown away.