Hotel Guest Bill of Rights

12/11/2007

Why is it I am generally more satisfied with 3 star hotels than 5 star hotels? It seems to me that too many 5 star hotels have simply lost their way.

The more expensive the hotel, the more things they find to charge you for.

I will update this list, but here is what I expect from a 5 star hotel:

• Tee Kettle - In room tea kettle. Some Hiltons, and most Radisson's in Europe have these.
• Free Internet - It's amazing that the Hilton in Barcelona is 230 Euros a night and Internet is an extra 27 Euros a day. Yet you can backpack and stay in a hostel for 15 Euros a night and have free WiFi.
• Clean - Especially in 5 star hotels it is absolutely unacceptable to find dirty sheets, or dirty bathrooms.
  
• Safe - In room safe for passports and other valuables.
  
• Accessible Electric Plugs - Two electric plugs accessible from the top of the desk. We should not have to crawl under the desk and move furniture around, or unplug lights to plug in a laptop. The plugs also should not be tied to the key being in the slot by the door, after all many of us business travelers would actually like to be able to charge our laptops while we are not in the room. Although if you find yourself in such a hotel room, try sliding your business card into the slot, this works in most hotels, that is until the maid comes to clean your room and discards it.
• Thick walls - I do not want to hear my neighbors TV, toilet, or other nighttime activities. Doors should also not have huge gaps underneath that permit noise from the hallway.
• Functioning Mechanics - There is simply no excuse for leaky faucets, clogged shower heads, noisy leaky toilets or TV's that are of Soviet era design.
  

Additional Notes

Above I listed what I consider a minimum. However there are several additional steps hotels should take.

• Street price mini bar - Most corporations will not pay for items from the mini bar. If hotels were to price mini bars at the same price as what you can buy the items for in a store, they would make much more money by increasing their volume. I almost never ever buy items from a mini bar, except in the case of being in a hotel in the middle of nowhere and only then after being desperatly thirsty.
  

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