ThreeDimensionalPeople Why don't you go outside and play with the three dimensional people?

13Jan/112

Hotel gripes hotlist

Few people, outside those engaged in the 'oldest profession', have been inside as many hotel rooms as Lonely Planet co-founder Tony Wheeler. His list of top 10 gripes of hotels (forwarded by a travel uber-geek friend) should be required reading for anyone in the hotel business (overly expensive internet and rip off breakfasts to name a couple).

It still amazes me how many simple things even top hotels get wrong. I stayed in the storied, luxury hotel Fairmont in San Francisco recently, and compiled a list of things that didn't fit in with a $300/night experience. There were many, including a complete absence of accessible plugs, a single bar of soap that i had to shuttle between shower and hand-basin, and an aircon setting that was constantly reset by the maid to the 60s whenever I left the room, clearly driven by a policy that thinks the 'environment' is man made.

My company Fordcastle has a new project - am working with a team in the UK looking at the future of hotels for a large chain, so I thought I'd start with Tony's post to put together a list of gripes that you dear reader are welcome to contribute to - either direct or via the comments here. After all, figuring out what the future should be starts with doing less of what doesn't work today.

Comments (2) Trackbacks (2)
  1. You’ve hit upon a sore point for me. Quite a few niggles added ;)

  2. Thanks Chris, some great adds. Particularly liked the point about the ‘rob me’ door hanging cards – hadn’t thought of it like that.


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