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Ben West, a British travel expert, felt annoyed when hotels charged too high a deposit, checked in late but checked out too early.
British travel expert Ben West spent two years checking into hotels around the world. Here are his top pet peeves.
Ignore "do not disturb" requests
While lying on a sun lounger on the veranda of an expensive hotel room, listening to music with headphones on, Ben was suddenly tapped on the shoulder by the housekeeping staff and asked if he wanted the room cleaned. The male tourist was not happy when someone entered the room because he had hung a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the doorknob.
"I paid a fortune for a hotel room, the least I expect is privacy," said Ben.
Late check-in, early check-out
Typically, guests check in at 2 p.m. and check out at 12 p.m. But more and more hotels are shortening the time guests can stay in their rooms. Many require Ben to check in at 4 p.m. and check out at 10 a.m. The two places that gave him this bad experience were in Rome, Italy and New York, USA.
Ben agrees that hotels need time to clean rooms before handing them over to new guests. However, taking 5-6 hours to clean is unacceptable.
The stakes are too high.
Many 4-5 star hotels require guests to use a credit card to deposit the room fee when checking in, and this amount can be very large. A hotel in New York required Ben to deposit $200 when checking in.
Safe is useless
Many hotels provide safes that are too small to fit a passport or wallet, and not enough to hold a laptop. In some cases, hotels will even say they will not be responsible if guests lose items in the safe, which makes Ben even more uneasy.
Difficult to use shower
Many of the hotels Ben stayed in left him confused about how to get hot or cold water to shower. The reason was that the signs explaining how to use the shower were too small or nonexistent. This caused the male tourist to have to shower with cold water many times or get burned by the sudden hot water spray.
Complicated wifi connection
Many hotels allow guests to access the internet with just one click, but many still require guests to manually enter a long password of numbers and symbols. Some hotels even charge guests for access to the wifi, while most hotels offer free access.
In addition, Ben also pointed out other factors that make many guests feel uncomfortable: the hotel room windows cannot be opened even though guests want to breathe fresh air, the lighting system is too complicated and takes time to turn off the lights if they want to go to sleep. The kettle is too big compared to the sink, forcing guests to fill the cup with water and pour it into the kettle, which also makes him feel annoyed and deducts points from the hotel.
TN (according to VnE)