To want to be able to sleep when I’m staying in a hotel.

[Hangerbout]

I work away from home a lot, so have clocked up a lot of experiences in hotels. AIBU? Here are the problems:

1. Bedrooms too hot. Air con default at 23 degrees appears to be the norm now, with restrictions on how low you can go (which is usually above what I need in order to sleep). Last week, the default was 25 degrees. Surely hotel chains have read the research that bedrooms need to be cool?
2. Beds too narrow or short. One time, the bed was so small I had to sleep diagonally.
3. Bed backboards affixed to inferior stud walls, resulting in waking up every time the person in the next room moves in their bed.
4. Hotels not informing customers they are hosting migrants, homeless families and what seems to be recently released offenders: thank you for all the noise in the middle of the night.
5. Doors that look like they’ve previously been crow-barred open. Cue trying to sleep with one eye open.
6. Gyms only open at 7am. Like, that’s too late.
7. Breakfast from 8am. Like, that’s too late.
8. Severe restrictions on the shower temperature options. Thank you for the luke warm shower! Likewise, a lack of industry wide standard shower fixings: I don’t want to solve the shower equivalent of a rubic’s cube when I’m pressed for time. Oh, and the shower head maximum height being set at ‘hobbit mode’. Thank you for the crick in my neck.
9. ’DOG FRIENDLY’ everywhere. Cue me not being able to breathe in a room formerly occupied by a dog due to allergy. But that’s ok because ‘customer wellbeing’.

Thank you for hearing my woes.

This. Last time I stayed in a Premier Inn there were holes in the curtains.

This used to be my life. I always took my own kettle, tea bags, rolls of washi tape (to cover the thousands of lights), and a plug extension cable. Emergency breakfast in my suitcase (porridge pot, biscuits). Travelodge are terrible ime, Premier Inn is better. No gym, but reasonable breakfast and good beds. Fairly good at dealing with noice complaints as they have to refund you otherwise.

I still take my kit with me if travelling.

@Sidebeforeself - the level of how annoying these issues are also depends on how much time you are spending in a certain hotel. A one-off trip, you might have to suck it up, but I've spent stints of over 6 months living Monday - Friday in the same hotel. If that is the situation, being unable to get breakfast (because it only starts at 0800) or not having time to get to the gym etc is much more of an issue.

Sure - some hotels may find it hard to get staff coming in early. But to be honest they need to build it into their model. If they are targeting the business market, then they need to be able to service its needs.

The other irksome stuff - like hot rooms, non-opening windows etc is something ALL hotels should be on top of!

Stay in better hotels.

Travelodge near here is housing a large number of migrants. Government has signed a deal with Travelodge for this purpose apparently.

I think nearly all these complaints could be avoided by simply reading reviews of hotels before you book. Surely everybody does that??
I've never stayed in a hotel where I couldn't adjust the heating/aircon.

Breakfast and gym times can be researched before you travel/book so select somewhere that meets your needs. I would of though most city centre hotels would accommodate business users wanting to get up early?
It does sound like you'e been staying in hotels at the budget end of the market.

The problem with timings for breakfast is that they'll never be able to please everybody. If they offered it from 6am, there would still be people with a very long journey ahead of them or needing to catch a flight who would complain that they couldn't get their breakfast, as they needed to leave by 5am.

The comments about stifling aircon remind me of something I read ages ago about English-language signs in hotels in non-English-speaking countries which lost a lot in translation and were unintentionally funny. One of them had a sign next to the aircon control panel that said something like "If you feel hot in the night, please control yourself; if you are unable to control yourself, call for the maid"

I agree with your 1 and 8. The lack of instructions on how to use showers drives me nuts.

On the bedroom temperature point, we as a nation like a colder room to sleep in but it seems we're in the minority - most other nations like a warm room and I assume that's what hotels are catering to.

My evidence for this is that I once listened to a podcast about it. Possibly More or Less? or maybe one of the Guardian's science podcasts?

Otherwise I have not encountered the issues you mention but I can imagine it would be quite annoying.

I’m sure hotels agree with you but getting the staff who can start at that time is extremely difficult. It’s not straightforward at all. People in hospitality jobs who depend on public transport have huge problems in getting on site early. Hotels could provide taxis but that becomes extremely expensive and likely to push up prices.

So the answer is come up with a midway solution and that’s probably what most hotels end up doing, hence 8am breakfast.

I've not had that but had the hooks missing so the curtain sags at the top and lets the light in.

And Best Western - same menu every day and very few options for vegetarians. I can't eat vegetable curry every night for 3 days

I really think hotels should insist that the manager sleeps in every room to do a snag test

If they offer breakfast from 6am there'll be nosie from 6am....

You must go to posher hotels, I always find the rooms freezing and no way to turn up the heat.

But more 'working men' hotels do tend to do early breakfast if they have a load of guys staying working locally.

YABU - not for wanting a hotel that suits your needs and wants but for complaining about it here rather than taking the time and effort to research and choose a suitable hotel. Some of these things you won't necessarily find on the hotel's website, but read recent reviews on TripAdvisor or somewhere and call or email and ask your questions. And if "migrants, homeless families and what seems to be recently released offenders" are keeping you up all night that's also an issue with the hotel; they should have a policy of managing noise both proactively/preventively and when a specific complaint is made regardless of who's making the noise. (Personally I think you're lucky not to have encountered any non-homeless non-criminal native-born noisemakers, but I suppose it's the luck of the draw.)

It's the drunks rolling back to their rooms in the early hours shouting goodnight to all their drinking companions and banging it seems endless doors that annoys me.

Where on earth are you staying that all this is happening? I have never had any of these issues.

A one-off trip, you might have to suck it up, but I've spent stints of over 6 months living Monday - Friday in the same hotel. If that is the situation, being unable to get breakfast (because it only starts at 0800) or not having time to get to the gym etc is much more of an issue.

To be fair, if you're effectively living long-term in a hotel room, rather than just staying there for a night or two, on a practical level (regardless of your own impeccable behaviour), that will make your needs and usage of the premises somewhat similar to the homeless people, asylum seekers and ex-cons that people complain so much about!

Why would migrants make more noise in the night than anyone else?

That is fair

These are examples from standard chain hotels. Plus, my employer only allows a certain amount to be spent.

Plenty of jobs that start work early - they’d also be able to finish early, of course which might suit some people.

Premier Inn seems to manage to offer breakfast from 6:30 weekdays as far as I can tell (though I don’t often bother with theirs as I don’t like it).

Id find that really late if there for work. 8am is a holiday breakfast time.

When you stay away for work, to be near the client, and have a limit placed on spending, it’s not as easy to simply ‘pick a nicer hotel’

Yeah this.

🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄

Thing is, it’s not like these chains will tell you. You just find out when you get there.

Hot bedroom drives me crazy. Late breakfast at the weekend also v annoying because I work the weekend and need to be in the office by 8.30. I haven’t had the other stuff on your list.