Hotel Checklist: A Tool for Frequent Travelers

From the Global Province (http://www.globalprovince.com)

This list will help you separate good hotels from average hotels when you are making reservations. Or you can hand it to the front desk manager when you are checking in and ask him to make sure the room is right. Little can be done about the two worst, most frequent errors of practically all hotels. They do not provide good transportation around town and to the airport. They do not offer good food. So be it. But this list will help you avoid some other common bloopers.

1. Good bright table lamps on each side of the bed. Some designers have taught hotels to provide dim lighting, which is supposedly romantic and which covers up a bad paint job. Have management move in a good lamp if the lights merely twinkle.


2. Three phones. There should be a phone by the bed, one on the desk, and one in the bathroom.


3. One must have an extension cord or other plug device offering at least 6 outlets. You will want to charge desktop, phone or phones, iPad, hotel teapot, electric razor, etc. Often ladies will want to dry hair in main room, which requires another plug.


4. Bathrooms should have large counter space for many toiletries, particularly for ladies. All the junk that jams up the sink area should be shoved in a drawer. Only one in 7 hotels provides enough shelf space in bathrooms.


5. There should be no less than 3 towels (bath, hand, washcloth) for each guest, plus a bathmat and a rubber mat for the tub or shower.


6. Fine tea. Hotels use crude tea for room service, even if they supply a decent tea in their cafes. Ask them the room service brand, and request that it be supplied loose with a teapot and water heater.


7. Windows that open. At night the air systems work badly, as the engineers cut the power. Get windows that open to avoid headaches and sleeplessness.


8. Request a simple-to-operate TV. All you want is to be able to quickly get to the main stations, of which they should supply a list. By and large, hotels will not honor your request, offering TVs that pimp hotel wares, offer pay movies, give you billing information, etc. If the TV is complicated (Samsung's always are), then ask that an engineer be sent to the room to give you driving lessons.


9. Big wastepaper baskets in every room, including the bathroom. Usually the bathroom baskets are particularly dinky.


10. A stool in the bathroom so ladies can apply their cosmetics in comfort. Almost always missing.


11. Good simple hangers. Wooden. No special hooks. At least 15 per guest.


12. Ice in the afternoon and early evening. Hotels like to fill only when doing room service in the early evening. That will not give you enough. One should request a covered large bucket (so that the ice will last until morning).


13. Well-chosen art. This is a rarity but it does happen. If chosen by hotel interior decorators, the art will be a disaster. If it is ugly, tell management.


14. Transportation to and from airport and to downtown area. This is the biggest failure of just about every hotel, so don't expect much here. The cabs in many cities are crummy and undependable. Ask at least if there is a good car service.


15. Room service. Order should be delivered in no more than half an hour. The food will generally be bad, but press for a good steak. Ask for heated milk with your tea or coffee. Request whiskey drinks straight up and demand another glass on the side filled with large cubes, not cracked ice. Most hotels now won't deliver after midnight, so think about requesting two drinks at once. Make sure all sauces are served on the side: they have been sitting and many will give you indigestion.


16. Ask for national newspapers to be delivered in morning.


17. Ask where the computer room is. The good hotels will not charge for this service.


18. Ask how to get connected to the hotel's wireless network. The good hotels will not charge for this service.


19. There should be clocks in both bedroom and sitting room.


20. The general manager should be very visible to guests. Amongst the major luxury chains, however, we have found that GMs of only one chain regularly walk around the hotel. The rest hide in their offices, hoping all problems will go away.


21. Every hotel should have a well-appointed gym offering exercise machines and massage treatments. If the massage is given in a cramped room, one should know the hotel is stinting. A sauna or steam bath should also be provided.