To think hotel designers should at least have once slept in a room before being allowed to design a room.

Slightly off topic, but I’ve always had the same thought when you see those finished houses on Grand Designs type programmes where there’s a bathroom / toilet with no door in the master bedroom. Who the hell designs an en-suite that’s completely open? Do these couples want to view each other on the bog? Not to mention the waft of shite that must drift into the bedroom when someone’s done their business in there 🤯

I have a friend who washes and dries her hair daily, every morning. She also has a moisturising routine that takes about twenty minutes. You can never have an early morning trip out if you're on holiday with her!

But I'm a slattern who washes her hair when she remembers and slaps a bit of whatever body moisturiser I brought with me on my face, so maybe I can't talk.

When it comes to hotel hatred - no sockets by the bed. I run Audible through my phone overnight to help me sleep. If there's no socket by the bed I either flatten my battery (and never have time to charge it up before I go out again) or plug it in on the other side of the room and have to listen to it whispering away (because if I turn the volume up it will disturb neighbouring rooms) which is almost more irritating than not being able to sleep

I recently stayed in one with an automatic flush sensor placed just above the toilet paper holder. So that when you went to grab some loo roll, the toilet flushed while you were sitting on it. So a kind of surprise bidet.

Agree with all this with the addition of the lack of hooks on the bathroom door for your dressing gown. And maybe a small stool for your towel next to the bath for when you get out.

Absolutely agree with this one - have just done a similar post before I saw this one.

Are yya bloke, perchance? If I didn’t rinse shower cream off my bum very thoroughly, I’d get very uncomfortable.

I too am in a Travellodge, and behind the toaster, it has a picture of a flaming toaster and a croissant in a red circle with a diagonal line over it. There are also words saying sliced bread and bagels only in the toaster,please ask if you want your croissant warmed.

The room itself does have adequate sockets - two on either side of the bed, plus USB sockets. Also two + USB at the desk, and one under the 3/4 length mirror. You could hang a full length dress. If it had been raining, I'd have probably wanted a separate hook for my coat, but as it is, my coat has not left my car the last few days.

There are two seats, though not very comfortable if you have a two hour long Teams call as I did last night.

The bathroom has a towel rail (it could probably do with two, but it's still one more than other places.) It also has sufficient flat space to spread my toiletries out.

The aircon is noisy, but the window opens, so it's not really an issue. The curtains keep the light out.

I have not fully worked out all the light switches, but I worked out enough that I've not been in light nor dark when I didn't want it.

It's cheap and characterless and the food is merely adequate, but I do get the impression someone thought about what people want for basic hotel use.

No I'm female and I didn't say I didn't rinse thoroughly I said I'd never taken a shower head off it's mounting to do it to remove shower cream foam.

I am so with you

My bugbears

Bedside plug only having one socket so it's phone charging or lamp

No bedside lamps or one which are brighter than the sun or dingy as fuck

Bedside lamps which can only be controlled from one side so if you want to turn yours on/off and the other person is asleep you have to get out of bed

(i have some neck reading lights now as I have had so many issues with bedside lamps!)

Clothes rails instead of wardrobes - makes the room look like a car boot sale and they are never long enough for maxi dresses, last hotel I stayed in in Greece I had to hang them on the side of the curtain rail.

Open storage generally - give me some bloody drawers!

Showers in the room - fine until room service knocks with coffee and you have to get out of the shower and hide in the loo!

Loos in the room - wtaf?

No plug within reach of a mirror to dry your hair

Televisions located on a wall which you can't see from the bed or chairs/sofa

Windows which don't open - I want fresh air!

Rainforest showers without hand held as well

Rooms so small that you have to climb over the bed to get into the bathroom (France and NYC I am looking at you here)

Flashing lights on anything

Curtains/blinds which aren't at least slightly dimming. Also rooms with great curtains but they also have another smaller window, or in one case a roof light, with no curtain/blind so you end up having to make some heath robinson contraption to keep the light out from a carrier bag or towel.

Places without do not disturb signs so housekeeping burst into your room every morning at 8am (not nice for them or us!)

Poncy hotels who don't offer newspapers in the morning - not everyone wants to stare at a phone while eating their breakfast in bed (I appreciate this is probably unreasonable but at one very ££ hotel I asked for papers with breakfast and was told there was a tesco 10 mins walk away if I wanted one! So I get up, get dressed, walk 20 mins then come back and get undressed and back into bed? No thanks!)

I was thinking of making a checklist and sending it to every hotel I stay in so they can see where they fall down!

Just got back from Prague, We had a "triple" room as DS came with us. It was the same as a double, but because 3 beds had been put in, the light switches that should be next to the bed were actually behind the outer two beds pillows! Slightly move in bed? Yep light on! Nightmare. It also had no side tables or sockets near the bed. Relatively new hotel too.

Five years ago a new hotel was built directly across the road from the block of flats where my daughter lives. This was opened with much pomp and ceremony is the most expensive place to stay in town. Unfortunately the guests seem unaware that windows work both ways and there are several windows that face my DD's living room and kitchen. The view into the hotel bedroom is uninterrupted so she and her DH regularly see naked bodies walking round the rooms and the occasional love making session as well. They have arranged their furniture to block the view as much as possible and have contacted the hotel to suggest they might want to tell their guests they can be seen but nothing seems to have changed.

Oh moxy’s with their pink lighting are the 8th circle of hell. It’s not fun or vibrant. It’s stupid.

Kettles you can't get under the tap to fill.

I don't bother with toast when there's one of these

I no longer travel for work so if I am staying in a hotel it’s usually for an event or occasion. I want to be able to style my hair so I want a socket near a mirror. It amazes me that this is so often not catered for regardless of the level of the hotel. I also want a full length mirror and not one hidden on the inside of a wardrobe door that has no space to stand in front of it. I want decent lighting too not that dreary half light.

i really struggle with horrible pillows full of manmade fibre that have no give and sweaty manmade fibre duvets. The pillows give me a headache.

@FucksakeLavender the bathroom thing bothers me definitely noticed that it’s all crazy bright light. Maybe designed by people who never need to go to the loo in the middle of the night.

I stayed recently in a room that only had a handheld shower arrangement in a huge, deep free standing bath. I have dodgy knees and the bath was too deep for me to sit down and get up in it, so I had to manage standing up with the shower head trying to soap my bum and hold the shower head at the same time. I can manage perfectly to get myself clean under a fixed shower, just stand with my back to it.

Shower caps - awful for the environment. Just buy one from a supermarket - cheap as chips, or there’s a huge selection on Amazon - and keep it in your washbag. And no I don’t want to wash my hair every time I have a shower either. It doesn’t need it.

Lack of sockets by the bed, or within easy distance of a mirror for hair drying/styling - yes yes yes. I’ve just bought an extra long extension cable with USB sockets.it.

Air con that switches between a loud turbo mode and quiet mode during the night controlled by thermostat.

Or air con controlled by motion sensor so if you roll over in the night it goes straight into turbo mode

I am also a regular business traveller and recently came across a new horror - no room kettle but a 'drinks station'...at the far end of each corridor. Same mediocre drinks but less conveniently placed.

I did a full on feminist rant in reception about women's safety in hotels and how no woman wants to go wandering around dark hotel corridors (no doubt having first had to get fully dressed!) in search of a late evening or early morning drink. A kettle and drinks tray was eventually found. I still question whether any woman was consulted in this decision making process, which was apparently made for 'environment reasons'. Voco hotels if you also want to avoid this fresh new horror.

Flashing LED lights, or non flashing ones that are really bright, are the worst. Especially blue ones that light the room. Also, air conditioning or ventilation systems that are loud or make noises e.g. every ten seconds. I tend to unplug the tv. In my last hotel I took the batteries out of an obnoxious loudly ticking clock. All I want is quiet and dark for a good sleep.

Terrible!

DD & I stayed in a lovely (luxurious) hotel earlier this year (I've been several times & love it). However: not enough hooks, towels too small & I never did work out the complicated arrangement of light switches. We were constantly flooding the room with light unintentionally.
Everything else was wonderful including the pillows & positioning of sockets! And no runners/cushions (a pet hate of mine, they must be filthy).

Oh, and I wash my hair every 4 or 5 days unless I go to the gym. It's takes hours to dry.

See also noisy fridges/minibars.

Going back to sockets. We regularly use the Sofitel at Heathrow T5 if we have an early flight or late return flight. Hard to beat for convenience but dear god their electrics need a complete overhaul. There are normal sockets on the room, one for the kettle which is by the door so useless while you are in bed, and two on the desk which is kitted out for early 2000s IT and no working USB socket. All the other sockets don’t fit British plugs or any adaptor I’ve tried. Their bathrooms are good though, walk in shower cubicle with dual head as well as a bath with hand held shower, and lovely Balmain toiletries.

I had the same issue with the Ruby hotels chain. They seem to think it's fun for guests to walk round three sides of the hotel to a 'galley space' (a glorified cupboard with a boiling-water tap and some teabags) when they want a hot drink. There's actually plenty of flat space where a kettle could go, but presumably they like to keep the surface clear for the ridiculously oversized and extremely ugly table lamp. Oh, and they don't believe in drawers. There is a bit of shelf space in the wardrobe, but it's not accessible to anyone under 6ft tall.