Business traveler hotel annoyances. I dunno — #1 (crappy and overpriced Internet access) and #2 (insufficient power outlets) are both pretty darned closed in my book.
And #2 is not just about "being able to plug in my laptop." I like using my mobile as an alarm clock and white noise generator on my nightstand. And a lot of hotels (including some quite pricey ones) simply do not have accessible outlets there.
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Crappy, expensive Internet and insufficient laptop plugs top business travellers' hotel annoyance list
The annual FlyerTalk survey of frequent business travellers' greatest hotel annoyances found that the top three peeves are all related to network access: expensive Internet, inaccessible/inadequate el…
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Back when I was doing 50,000 miles a year, I tended to have a strong preference for Courtyard for many of these reasons. Mind you, internet access was dialup in those days, but they were good and consistent about having a desk, with a modem-jacked phone, and outlets. Courtyard's kind of like McDonald's that way — nowhere near the best in any given town, but a predictably very consistent set of features.
EDIT TO ADD: Googling about, I see Courtyard generally has net access for free. I am wholly unsurprised.
Courtyard is pretty good. I don't travel enough, consistently, to have a favorite chain (thank goodness).
Heh. There was one full year (2001-02) where I was up here in Seattle looking for work, and Ulrika was down in OC. I would drive that every six weeks or so along I-5. You know you've done it too often when a) you know there are three Motels 6 in Redding (just about the half-way mark), and b) you have a favorite one.
I have a surge protector which is flexible and can handle 6 adapter boxes. Cord is not long enough to stretch across the hotel room, though.
The “what do you need an outlet by the bed for?” attitude gripes me too. I have been carrying a small “decorator” sized pillow with me for years to combat the pillow issue.
As I need it cooler in a rooom than many, not being able to get temp below 68, or if the cooler is too noisy, I CAN be miserable. I was in a motel in El Cajon in September 2008, going to get an attorney for a restraining order for a jerk, away from my sister, pulled into one near the attorney, and found that I could not get cold water, nor cool the room down enough, and I had driven down from the Bay Area with no AC in my van. I was soaking with sweat, and miserable with the heat. I was given the excuse that the *northern* side of the hotel, where my room was, got too hot. I’ll say! I guess insulation was not in their vocabulary, along with WiFi easily obtainable in every room.
I got out the phone book and called the least expensive place that claimed to have WiFi. I asked the young man if they had cold water, and did their WiFi actually get to every room. He laughed, and commiserated, and I moved there the next morning. What it lacked was any kleenex (and I had one heck of a bad cough at that point) or any device that had the time–no clock, and the microwave was so ancient that it only had a twisty knob. Lovely management, though.
@Marina – I do carry a multi-outlet travel surge suppressor in my “cable kit” for travel — but it’s not meant to serve as an extension, unfortunately.
I’ve given up on using hotel clocks, largely for the uncertainty of whether they will actually work (and some uncertainty of whether I’ve set them properly). Nothing like waking up an hour or two before the alarm, paranoid you’re going to miss it. Instead, I use my mobile, which a white noise generator on it (Lightning Bug), which I find helpful in most hotels, too.