A typical list of what makes a great hotel room might include well-located power ports; plenty of bottled water; fast wifi; motion-sensing night lights; luggage space; and working quiet air conditioning.
I’ve given a lot of thought to what makes a hotel great, and how simple design flaws can ruin a property. More often though great physical properties can be ruined by poor service execution or short-sighted cost cuts.
Hoteliers: ever wonder why a property with great facilities and a competitive room rate in a good location isn’t getting the level of repeat business it might expect? It may come down to something simple.
Mandatory Resort Fees
Hotels taking part of the room rate out and burying it in fine print is fraud. We get up in arms over airfare displays when already those are pretty clear and clean, it’s hotels where the worst behavior happens.
These are not optional charges, so they are part of the room rate. Not including them in the room rate is disingenuous. In 2012 the Federal Trade Commission warned hotel chains that mandatory resort fees may be illegal but no one heeded that warning. There’s a new FTC rule requiring full pricing display but we’ll see if it survives and makes a difference.
Instead mandatory add-on fees have been spread to city locations. The idea of the free $50 a night long distance call and access to the hotel gym is no longer limited to resort hotels. Some chains are at least disclosing the fees up front on their websites, but online travel agencies are still bad actors along with hotels, engaging in drip pricing and causing customer resentment.
Billing Guest Credit Cards For Additional Charges After Checkout
When a hotel decides to charge you for something that wasn’t on your folio when you checked out, by just billing your credit card, they should have to email to let you know they are doing it and identify the item(s).
By all means, you should pay what you owe, but a huge pet peeve is additional (usually small) charges showing up on my credit card statement days later. If I didn’t comb through my statements I wouldn’t even know they had done this. And then I have to get in touch with the property to find out what this additional charge is even for.
If a hotel’s systems and processes are too poor to identify charges before checkout, they should at the very least proactively reach out to the customer to explain they’re hitting the card for more charges and send a statement detailing those charges. Don’t leave it to the customer to notice they’ve been hit, and then have to do research to understand why.
A Hyatt property once billed me for the cash portion of a cash and points award five months after my stay.
At another Hyatt they always they tell me in-room bottled water is complimentary for top tier elite members and then they bill my credit card for it after I’ve checked out.
They’re happy to remove the charge when called on it. But since it doesn’t make the final folio, it requires follow up — which is more costly in my time and theirs than the actual charge itself.
How am I supposed to submit an expense report for a charge I don’t know about? Why make me spend more time tracking down these charges than the charges are worth? And why put me in the awkward position of submitting expenses for an old, closed-out trip?
Lack of Coffee
Hotels should have 24 hour coffee available and access to real milk and cream.
- A business hotel needs to be able to provide coffee 24 hours a day.
- There are lots of ways to do this: in-room machines, club lounge, lobby, and even room service.
- The coffee needs to be drinkable, and that includes making it possible to get the real milk or creamer of your choice.
That’s just basics. Hotels without in-room coffee, and a lobby option, and that do not offer 24 hour room service are a complete and total fail. Claiming to be an upscale or full service property, and aiming at business travelers, they’re completely missing the point.
I’ve been to too many properties where there’s no coffee before 6 a.m. That’s great, until:
- You’re coming in from another time zone, and getting up at 4.
- You have an early flight.
- You need to get up early to work on a presentation.
Morning coffee can set the tone for the whole day, and entire stay.
The coffee bar at the Hilton New York JFK.. more than once I’ve shown up half an hour after opening to find no one working, this time I got lucky!
I once stayed at what was then the W San Diego and rang up the “Whatever Whenever” line at 5 a.m. They were supposed to be able to get Whatever you want Whenever you want it. I wanted coffee at 5 a.m.. They told me no, coffee isn’t available until 6.
If there’s a coffee shop or coffee stand in the lobby, it needs to be open at its posted time. If the coffee shop opens at 6 then gosh darnit it should be staffed at 6… not 6:15 or 6:30.
The Coffee Stand in the Lobby of the Hyatt Herald Square Opened 30 Minutes Late So I Went to Starbucks
A Hotel is For Sleeping
Walls should be thick enough not to hear your neighbor, or the elevator. And connecting rooms are for families traveling together. Please don’t assign one to me.
Natural light is great, but not when a guest is trying to sleep. A room should be able to get light, but also keep out the light.
And do not disturb means… do not disturb. If I’ve got do not disturb on, housekeeping shouldn’t knock on the door. Don’t call me an hour after arrival, either, to see how I like the room? If there was a problem, I’d have let you know. And if I’m off an overnight flight, I may be trying to take a quick nap so I can power through to dinner and adjust to the local time quickly.
Valet Parking Purgatory
A hotel should help get you on your way. If they can’t get your car out of mandatory valet parking within 15 minutes they shouldn’t charge.
Hyatt Regency Houston Downtown
Or better yet: a hotel can usually project its occupancy levels, and is aware of the conferences and events it is hosting. Staff appropriately relative to occupancy.
Only One Soap in the Bathroom
When I get into a hotel room, usually the first thing I do is wash my hands. I’ve been traveling.
That means unwrapping the soap. It goes into the soap dish beside the sink.
So in the morning I get into the shower and find there’s no soap and I have to get out of the shower and put the soap from the soap dish beside the sink into the shower? That’s an early morning fail.
Upgrades That Aren’t
Over the years the surest way to know I haven’t been upgraded is when I’ve received a sticky note on a key folio that says “You’ve been upgraded!”
If a hotel has to tell me my room is an upgrade, if it’s not something I’m going to notice myself, then it isn’t an upgrade. And if they have to outsource it to a written note, because the front desk agent either won’t notice the room I have is better than standard or is going to be too bashful to tell me my room over the HVAC is an upgrade, then it isn’t one.
A simple corollary is that an executive floor room is not an upgrade. Executive floor benefits are. But especially if you’re entitled to those anyway, the room itself is rarely any different than one on another floor. Telling guests that it’s an upgrade doesn’t make it one.
If you aren’t going to upgrade me, I understand. Play by the rules, hotels sell out, or have too many elites and I accept that. But don’t lie to me and tell me my room that’s just like the others is special just for me because of my status.
Unreliable Airport Shuttles
An airport hotel needs to be able to reliably get you to and from the airport.
The whole point of staying near the airport is to get into bed as quickly as possible once you land, and to be able to sleep in the next morning and leave the hotel later than you’d have to if you were staying downtown.
If you have to wait half an hour for an airport shuttle, or you can’t rely on the time the shuttle will leave the hotel and therefore have to present yourself downstairs early to make sure you get a seat or don’t miss it, you give up that time advantage.
And you’ve wound up trading a nicer place in a better location for a nondescript airport property — without the countervailing benefit of proximity (timeliness).
Not Enough Outlets
“This room has too many outlets” said no hotel guest, ever.
Older hotels often have no or very few outlets, and those that are available are badly placed. They’re in use for lamps, they’re behind the bed, or blocked by a large desk.
If a room is meant to accommodate two people then assume that both people need to charge a laptop, a phone, maybe a tablet or a wireless internet device, and an external battery.
There needs to be outlets available at the desk, and also by the bedside. Many people want their phones beside the bed. I only want mine there when there’s no easily visible alarm clock.
So there need to be multiple outlets, in multiple places, conveniently located.
You Have Late Checkout, But Keys Stop Working at Noon
I know not everyone has had perfect experiences with guaranteed 4pm late checkout for elites (outside of resort or convention hotels where it’s subject to availability) but it’s never been denied to me at a hotel where it’s a benefit.
I especially value Hyatt properties where I find I’m nearly universally proactively offered late checkout when I’m checking in.
Clearly it’s part of their procedure. So when a guest says, “yes I’d appreciate a 4pm checkout” they should code the keys for a 4pm late checkout.
I’ll usually remind them to do this. But I don’t always. And every time I fail to offer the reminder I’ll go back to my room on my day of checkout at, say, 2pm and find that my key doesn’t work. So I have to go down to the front desk, where they’ll make me a new key, and then it’s back up to the wrong. This one doesn’t seen to be that hard to get right.
Last fall not only didn’t my key work at the Hyatt Regency Dallas but my belongings had been taken, too.
The Light That Won’t Turn Off at Bedtime
At midnight at the Hyatt Herald Square I wanted to go to bed, so I went about turning off the lights in my room. Only I could not figure out how the light on one side of the bed turned off.
There was a simple light switch on the other side. Easy. You’d think the lamp on the other side of the bed would work the same way. But it didn’t.
I walked around the room looking for light switches, and couldn’t find one that would turn it off.
There were two switches beneath the light, next to power outlets.
I tried each of them, and neither turned off the light. My first thought then was that the switches must control the outlets. Since they didn’t turn off the light. Flip the switch on the right, the light was still on. Flip the switch on the left, the light was still on.
It took me 15 minutes to figure out that you have to flip both switches in order to turn it off.
The last thing I wanted to do was deal with getting help from the hotel at midnight. Wait for help from the hotel at midnight. To turn off a light in my room. But I knew I’d need to, because as much as a part of me was wondering if I could just fall asleep like that, I knew it was a bad idea. I’d fall asleep, but then I’d be up in an hour. And sleep off and on through the night.
Hotel room design must be intuitive. Turning lights on and off in your home is iterative. Since you turn the same lights on and off over and over you train yourself in a way that it’s second nature. But each light in a hotel room is used once or a handful of times by a person approaching it for the very first time — every single day or every few days. Everything in a room needs to be intuitive.
What Are Your Pet Peeves? What Have I Left Off the List?
Are my pet peeves peculiar to me? What are the basic things hotels get wrong that keep you away from repeat stays? What are your must haves and pet peeves you’d like to fix?
Lately, what’s been ‘ruining’ my stay is having to debate a franchisee on honoring their brand’s benefits for elite members? Like, oh, you’re not going to honor Bonvoy Platinum breakfast benefit, and deny upgrades based on ‘availability’ when you’re at 20% occupancy. Hmm. Right. Cool. Yup.
I keep telling you Hyatt totally sucks and I will never patronize them again….
OMG, you missed one of my Top 5 Must Haves… The mattress has to be good, and not permanently warped into a banana from overuse.
Hotels that charge “apres” fees after I’ve left. I always (ALWAYS) dispute these with my credit card company along with a letter to the hotel asking that they vacate the ENTIRE fee due to the fraudulent practices. I also send copies to the California State Attorney General, Fraud Division.
So far I’ve had 100 percent refunds on both Hyatt and 4-Seasons hotels. To charge after the fact is theft, pure and simple, and the CEO’s of these corporations need to enjoy the feeling of handcuffs as they’re led out of their office and into court.
Thieves!!!
A TV I can figure out – with normal channels would be an addition. As well as a good mattress / pillows.
The first thing I’ve started doing is running the tub and making sure the drain actually……ya know……DRAINS!!! I’ve had more than one tub that I haven’t done that and found myself standing in a pool later.
That’s a good summary of all the pet peeves I have as well. It’s more a US phenomenon. I just returned from Spain and stayed one night at the palace in Madrid on an award redemption. The upgraded me to a huge suite and because the room was not ready for another 15 min ( I was early btw) they escorted me , my wife and my daughter to the bar area and had us order whatever food and drink we wanted off the regular menu for free. The following morning , they also extended the breakfast benefit to my daughter as well. It was one of the best hotel breakfast buffets I have had. None of this would have happened at a US hotel I can guarantee it.
@James Thurber — You are the man, sir. Keep doing what you are doing. If we all held these scoundrels accountable, then they wouldn’t even try with these frauds as much anymore. Well done. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but since we’re on our own, this is the best way. James gets it.
Staff that does not smile. Its called the hospitality business for a reason.
Room service left in hallways. It’s gross and could lead to pests.
No smoking rooms that smell like cigars.
Large stains on carpeting.
TVs without clear instructions on how to operate.
Las Vegas is the pits for the resort fee and no room coffee. I pack a portable coffee maker when I go there.
Older properties suffer most from outlet shortages.
I am a Hilton Honors Diamond and in the last year have noticed that Hilton has changed their upgrade policy from what used to be pretty much any room in the hotel to the “next level” room which is often no upgrade at all. So if I want to stay in a suite I have to reserve the next level down, not just the basic room that I used to reserve. This is a slight change that makes travelers like me reserve more expensive rooms that we used to.
Not paying for what you consumed, even if that’s a day or two later, and then disputing it, is the definition of fraud.
1. No usable or accessible electrical outlets or electrical outlets designed in such a way that both outlets can’t be used at the same time.
2. Breakfast not starting until 7 am on weekdays at airport, downtown, suburban office park, or convention hotels.
3. Bars or restaurants not opening to 5 pm, especially at airport, downtown, or convention hotels. At least open your bar so that guests arriving for check-in at 3 or 4 pm who find out their room isn’t yet ready have someplace to go and spend their money.
4. Toiletry dispensers.
5. No physical newspaper. A half-dozen copies of the Wall Street Journal or The New York Times in the club lounge or in the lobby area doesn’t cost any money.
We recently stayed at the Ritz Carlton in Santigo Chile. We noticed one of the “not complimentary” bottles of water was not sealed and brought it to the front desk and were assured we would not be charged for it. The day after we checked out, I got a notice that we were being charged for something form the minibar. We had not taken anything from the mini fridge and it took several emails to get the charge removed. I told them it was trying to prove a negative, how other than my word, could I prove that I hadn’t consumed anything from the mini fridge.
I agree totally with Gary! About everything. Alas, in Europe, the early morning coffee is not an habit…
By the way, tonight I am staying at the Hilton Berlin, where they know what is an upgrade! Beautiful suite with a perfect view!
I think the made up “fees” and so on should be barred, or at least GREATLY restricted in general. As you say hotels are now bad about it; but (for example) comparison shopping internet service providers, cell phone service, etc. becomes difficult when that “$40” plan really costs like $75 because of MAYBE $5 in taxes and $30 in made up fees so they can claim the price is lower than it really is (or “even better”, claim a price lock but just freely raise the fees.)
To be honest, if I checked out, paid, and started getting extra charges tacked on after checkout, I’d reverse charges on them (not whatever I paid at checkout, but whatever they tacked on afterward.) And ask the hotel and whatever chain it’s part of to remove my credit card information, since it should not be sitting in their system anyway after the transaction is done (both so they can’t do stuff like this, and so info thiefs can’t pull it from their system and you get EVEN MORE unexpected charges.)
I have 3 pet peeves.
1. AC that isn’t AC, more like a thought. If a hotel tells me it has AC, then I want to get the room down to 18-19 degrees for sleeping, no matter the season. This is much more common in Europe, but what’s the point of calling it AC if it will only go 3 degrees below the outdoor ambient temp.
2. Not enough hot water for the evening or morning rushes.
3. Hotels that don’t maintain their properties. If I can see something pretty quickly, the cleaner and the supervisor should as well and had it dealt with, not me at 1030pm after a long flight.
My pet peeve is housekeeping that fails to turn the alarm off when turning a room.
Just because the last person in the room needed to get up at 0515 does NOT mean that I do too
I second @Johnny’s first item. I let my house go down to 63F/17C in the winter and 67F/19C in the summer (only bc I don’t want to pay to make it even cooler). I like to sleep under a heavy duvet so those temps are fine with that. But if you’re not going to allow the A/C to get that cool, then give me a top sheet so I can at least have some cover! I’ve resorted to bringing my own with me.
I would also dearly love to see suites with two beds. Several times I’ve been eligible for an upgrade but am traveling with a friend and we don’t want to share a bed or use a sleeper sofa.
You’re a chain hotel in a business/tourist/airport hotel. 99% of your guests will have a car. I hate the $25 parking fee for the regular lot attached to the hotel. Walgreens doesn’t charge me to park to come inside and spend money at their store. No repeat stays at those hotels.
1. Hotels with HVAC tied to outside temperature. I once stayed at a Pasadena hotel with this “feature.” The room was cold when I arrived, so I turned on the heat and cranked it. And the room got colder, because the system was set to cold air for outside temp > 60 deg … and it was 61 outside.
2. Hotels that use the key card to complete the room’s electrical circuit. I understand this, it saves energy when you’re not in the room. But in a tropical spot like Cambodia, you don’t want the room A/C off while you’re gone. Or the room feeling tropical when you first arrive.
I have issues with room design. Bath towels that are nowhere near the bath/shower.
Rooms that have the sink outside of the toilet/bath and open to the sleeping area. So when you use the toilet in the middle of the night and have to wash up, your partner gets to wake up.
Rooms that have little lighting.
Beds on platforms that attack your legs as you go by…
No hooks in bathrooms for towels or robes. Half a shower curtain. Bathroom doors that don’t lock, or that have foggy glass, so if you’re turning on the light at 2am to use the bathroom don’t wake up everyone else. It is clear no interior designer has ever stayed at the hotel rooms they have designed. This isn’t that complicated.
I often take a multiple outlet extension cord with me when I am going to stay at a hotel. It can solve the multiple chargers plugged in problems as well as the chargers fall out of the sockets problems. A bit of cordage can also find uses. It would be nice if hotel rooms were set up to be convenient but often they are not.
Not enough waste baskets near the table where you might work.
Closet with no doors, which is becoming more common
Nowadays.
Up selling during breakfast service without telling you that it would be an extra charge. This has happened to me in the US rather than Europe or Asia but they come by ask you if you want a latte or if you want an omelette and then you find out they charge you extra for those things.
Also finding ways to ensure that you are obligated to tip. So you go to a breakfast buffet, you have to get all your food,but to get your coffee, the attendant will bring it to you and now you are obligated to tip them because they did provide you some service.
My pet peeve
Chairs that are too low to the work desk or will not adjust high enough. Chairs that don’t have height adjustment are often too low and give you that sinking feeling having to reach up to the desk. I often have client calls to make on the road and need privacy due to private information so the lobby is a non-starter. I always appreciate a solid desk and good chair. Some desks are display tables with too much stuff for my documents and laptop to occupy
Garbage cans arre way too small. They never hold to go food containers
Toilets. Really really great toilets are the sign of a good property.
A plunger is also always welcome-not sure why most properties don’t have one. Hate having to call housekeeping.
Extra points -toilet with modern integrated (not separate) bidet functions (much like the Tushy). On a recent trip to Turkey, every.single.toilet – no matter where we stayed or stopped, had one. Gotta love the spray wash and also saving the environment with much less toilet paper waste!
Not new but heavy Duvets in summer weather or properties that have heating that is not fully adjustable. Then, they have duvet covers instead of top sheets. If you don’t notice until late, you sweat for the night.
Constant slamming of doors by guests and staff.
@Patrick Jacobs — Wow, a Hilton Diamond! My liege! Allow us to roll out the red carpet for you next time. Of course, I’m just joking around. It still means something, just not much, these days. Besides, unlike other brands, since the Amex Aspire card bestows upon anyone willing to pay the $550 annual fee that hotel chain’s ‘top-tier’ status, it kind of waters down the ‘aura’ of such a thing. Yet, so long as you set expectations appropriately, as-in, probably ‘not getting an upgrade,’ maybe ‘getting late check-out,’ and hopefully ‘getting free breakfast,’ then you’ll be better prepared and less disappointed. That’s what I do at least.
The latest con related to the mandatory resort/destination fees has made me livid. Sure now they have the display that fee in the final quoted price, but the runaround you have to do to use the “benefits” that you are paying for is infuriating.
The most widespread scam that seems to be taking hold at many hotels is the daily F&B credit. Each day you essentially pre-pay for a $25 credit to use on site (money I probably wouldn’t have spent) and often due to the high menu prices, prompting more spend than $25. These credits do not stack and must be used on that day. Recently after checking in at a Marriott in Miami at 11PM after all restaurants had closed, they informed me I couldn’t use the credit for breakfast in the morning because its only applicable on that day….what a joke, pay us $25 for something you can’t use anyway. This fee especially makes it frustrating when redeeming points at Marriotts since you have to pay this fee in cash since their point redemptions infuriatingly don’t cover these mandatory add-ons.
When all the lights in a hotel room are a cold blue color temperature. Who wants to relax in cold light? The only cold blue light should be a task lamp on the desk. Every other light should be warm amber, ideally all sharing the same kelvin.
Even newly opened franchises by experienced operators / owners and full service hotels do this. I perceive it as some combination of ignorance and penny pinching.
More and more hotels are using dispensary bottles in the showers instead of bar soap and little bottles of shampoo, conditioner, etc
But while the brand name of the bottle is large, what’s inside is often ridiculously small, leading me to fetch my glasses to see — and then remember — what’s what.
Seconding “turn off the alarm clocks”.
I’ll add a general “make sure controls are easy to find and use.” My worst stay so far this year featured a hotel room with an apparently-inoperative thermostat. I just slept in a room that was unpleasantly cold. When I mentioned it to the front desk at check-out, they asked “did you turn the switch by the wall unit on.” On re-checking, there was a light switch at outlet height, at the back of the room by the heat/AC unit – it needed to be turned on for the thermostat to work.
Nice list. Fully agree on “upgrades”, Valet Parking and Shuttles. I’ll add one…loud music in the lobbies. I often have extra time and want to do some work but you can’t be on a call with the load music in the background.
I did stay at a Ritz in LA and they had complimentary coffee in the lobby starting at 5:00 AM. Perfect for all of us on East Coast time doing business. At 5:15, there were probably 20 people scattered around the lobby on their laptops/phones.
As for the late check-out and having to re-do the room card…I was told (at Marriotts) that the system automatically wipes ALL keys at Noon. I assume to prevent late check-out for those that haven’t “earned” it.
Far and above all of these is keeping the air in the room healthy and mold-free. I am very sensitive and feel mold in half the hotel rooms I enter. I know it’s not easy but it seems pretty key.
Newer hotels offer less comforts. Standard rooms have only a shower, no tub. If there is an armchair at all, it is focused on design and not comfort. Skimping on bar soap, thermostats that are capped without enough range of high and low. The minimalist style is just cost cutting in disguise.
1 – Sheets that can barely stay on the mattress. The worst distraction in the night is fighting with a sheet coming off by your feet. Disney is bad about this.
2 – Nothing says CHEAP like all coffee service items individually wrapped in plastic. What a nightmare to unwrap everything. We don’t have glasses anymore, but does a styrofoam cup have to be wrapped?
3 – Slow drains in the sink and the tub.
Not enough towel racks in the bathroom!!!!!
Slick floors inside the shower. Shower floors should not be smooth at all. It is not so hard to have a lightly textured floor so that you are not in fear for your life just to take a shower.
Bathrooms need nonslip rubber mats. No explanation needed. They should be clean. No explanation needed.
My pet peeve is only one (or none) luggage rack yet I have told property in advance that two of us will be staying in the room. Now, one if us has to use the chair (typically too small) or worse, the floor! Infuriates me.
Second the comments wanting safety texture or mats in tub and shower. Maybe even a grab bar for when you do start to slip and slide.
How about a clock actually set to the right time? I don’t remember the last time a hotel-room desk clock or clock radio was not minutes if not hours wrong. And of course they cannot be adjusted by the guest (so how did a prior guest mess it up?).
For an airport shuttle – the Hilton MIami Airport has to be the absolute worst. No shuttle until 5:30am – I was downstairs at 5:00 am and there were already people waiting.
Shuttle finally rolls up – driver exits and announces, “the Crew has priority”. So the first shuttle of the morning was leaving about 10 guests.
I went to the desk to request a taxi and the front desk receptionist called one. She said this happens every day and encouraged me to complain to Hilton
Btw – the hotel is in serious need of a renovation. Looks like nothing has been touched in 20 years.
You hit most of mine!
The one missing is free bottled water in a plastic bottle. By definition many customers arrive straight from the airport and the last thing I want to do is find a 7/11 to buy an overpriced bottle. IMO this is more important that the morning coffee.
Speaking of which hotels could save a lot of $$ by removing those stupid in-room coffee makers. They almost never stock a brand that I would drink and most are not self-explanatory in terms of operation. Just junk them all and keep a thermos in the lobby.
The name of this article included, “How To Avoid Them,” however, I do not see many (any) comments on “How To Avoid Them.” Please add.
Hotels that require you to take two elevators to get to your room, with a transfer at the lobby.
Hotels that require you to take an elevator at all, when you’re in a room in the bottom five floors.
Hotels that leave the towels on the bed instead of in the bathroom.
Yes, the airport shuttle thing, but if I can’t walk to the airport in 30 minutes I don’t consider it an airport hotel.
Lack of bar soap, AC that goes off in the middle of the night due to software settings and/or motion sensing issues, super bright LED lights on smoke detectors aimed at the bed, noisy construction with paper-thin walls, and worse…connecting doors where I can hear the person next door snoring, listing to rap music, talking on the phone, etc.
Bonus items: Sticky carpets, dirty showers with mold in them, tiny “Barbie” sized trash cans…with lids that are hard to open with your foot. Crappy in-room coffee makers (just give me a Nespresso or K-cup machine already). Breakfast that doesn’t start until 6:30 or 7 am at motel-level places like HIX, Fairfield, Hamptons. Tiny TVs from 2001 that don’t work well and are a mile from the bed. Poor wi-fi that has a crappy login process. Trash service from a company that wants to arrive at 4:30 am (AT A HOTEL) to pick up the dumpsters and bang them into the garbage truck before putting the truck into reverse to wake the rest of the people up with the backup alarm.
The smell of: Curry, smoke, weed, or mildew.
I could go on but you’d think I was complaining.
All that you mention, especially the coffee in the morning. Please add: no cups in the bathroom to use for brushing teeth and rinsing (for tap water or bottled water). If there are cups in the room they are paper wrapped in plastic, or glasses over by the ice bucket that look dusty and have to be washed first.