We hope you enjoyed our series '10 things that annoy us about hotels'. If you missed it, you can read all 10 posts here. A big thank you to the hoteliers who responded to our gripes with some explanation as to why hotels do the things they do, and in some cases, how their hotels do things differently. They were very enlightening. Do take a read of the comments too, which have been appreciated. We're relieved to know it's not just us who are driven crazy by this stuff. I've also received some comments by email, including one from Guido, the Happy Hotelier, which was hilarious: "Plastic under sheets. As if we are babies without diapers. Its the first thing we check after we check into a hotel and we take them off and replace them with towels......usually many towels because in many hotels the towels are like handkerchiefs." Travel writer David Whitley stays in as many hotels as we do and he had some really insightful comments. David wrote a superb piece on his 'Top 10 hotel bugbears' for Ninemsn Travel. David's gripes include: twin beds passed off as a double, key cards, keycard light slots, 1001 lights, environmental pretense, no toilet brush, shower heads, tiny towels, and ambiguous mini-bar items. Interestingly, David says "It got the most comments I've ever had there. Some of them are priceless - but there are a few interesting points from the hotel industry too." Do take a read for yourself. As for us, you can expect another series of '10 things...' on a different travel topic soon.

Pictured? The divine swimming pool and courtyard at boutique hotel Tri Yaan Na Ros at Chiang Mai, Thailand. A charming hotel with delicious local Thai specialties from the market served for breakfast, but unfortunately rooms are tiny; you can read our full review here at i-escape.

We’re used to the 2pm or 3pm check-in time and noon check-out, although we’ve never been happy with them. But it appears the time you actually have in the hotel room is shrinking further. We’ve recently had 10am and 10.30am check-out times – which is fine for a roadside motel, but not so cool for a design or boutique hotel. This says to us that the hotel wants the customers there for as short a time as possible, and wants to get rid of their paying customers as soon as possible, to make the lives of their housekeepers as easy as possible. But the customer should come first, right? And what constitutes a ‘night’ in a hotel? Do we need 24 hours? Or are we just paying for a roof over our heads and a bed for whatever period the hotel deems acceptable? Here are our thoughts: if it’s a roadside motel travellers who are on the road check in late and leave early anyway, so 10am check-out is fine by us. But a business hotel or airport hotel should be as flexible as possible - and go as far as to offer 24 hour check-in to accommodate their guests who could be flying in at all sorts of unusual hours. But the luxury or resort hotel? Well, they should give guests a full 24 hours, because after all, you're there to relax, to pamper yourself, and to enjoy the hotel experience.

We asked hotel manager Guido J van den Elshout (AKA The Happy Hotelier) who owns the luxurious Haagsche Suites (pictured) to respond: "This is my take, and I'm not referring to airport hotels that have separate rules (and 100% occupancy); Yotel for instance has 4, 8 and 12-hour stays with rates accordingly. Consider the hotelier who has to organize housekeeping. Between 11am check out and 3pm check in (our practice) he has 4 hours to clean all the rooms. Usually housekeeping has an 8 hour shift. The smaller the time window between check out and check in is, the more people the hotelier needs to get the cleaning done. What does the hotelier do with those people for the other 4 hours of their shift? Probably general housekeeping or gardening, but not every housekeeper is a gardener. So hoteliers try to keep that window as wide as possible. It's not realistic to believe 4 hour shifts are possible. People need to earn a living. If you give them 4 or 5 hour shifts, they'll most likely also work for other employers. The result will most likely be those people will do a lesser job at your hotel... There's an industry rule that says cleaning a room should take between 8-15 minutes, but I can tell you that if a hotelier keeps to that your room won't be properly cleaned. As in every industry there are rules created by people who have a desk job and have never experienced housekeeping. In our property we need at least one hour per room, depending on the state the guests leave the room in. It can easily take 1.5 hours. There are occasions where we've had guests checking out at 1pm and new guests checking in between 1-3pm. Ideally you put extra housekeeping on call then, but that's hardly realistic. So you end up trying to pinpoint your peaks and hire accordingly..."

"I'd say a guest has more or less a 'right' to stay approximately 16 out of 24 hours in a hotel. My advice for the traveler? It is my experience that when you advise a hotel well in advance of your (ideal) anticipated arrival and departure times, they will try to do their utmost to accommodate your wishes. At least the smaller properties. The bigger chains have rules rules and rules and have hardly any flexibility."

So what's your take on check-in/check-out times?

Lately we’ve been checking into some gorgeous grand old piles – with varying states of upkeep. While we love those old radios that they sometimes have above the headboard, the other anonymous switches that old hotels have drive us crazy. If these butler buttons haven’t worked since 1965, it might be time to rip them out of the walls, unless a butler from 1965 turned up every time you pressed it. At least a butler from 1965 would agree with you that the button is stupid, it should be ripped out of the wall, and he’d have the contacts to make it happen on a Sunday afternoon. But don’t get us started on modern hotels that overdo the gadgetry. Those PDA-style touch screens that close the drapes, change the TV channel, adjust the air-conditioning, turn on the Jacuzzi, and could probably make you an espresso, generally turn out to be useless. I’m sure that Apple’s Steve Jobs has probably hurtled a few across a hotel suite out of sheer frustration. Here’s a tip to hoteliers thinking of implementing these systems. When it takes the guy or gal who shows you to the room fifteen minutes to explain how the interface works on the stupid thing, that’s a sign of technology making life harder rather than easier. And it’s wasting your staff’s time and making your guests aggravated.
Last month we experienced Villa Crespi (pictured) a magical old Moorish-style hotel on Italy's Lake Orta that puts the history and grandeur of the hotel first and keeps things simple for guests, so we asked Francesca Blench, Marketing Manager for Villa Crespi to respond: “Technology seems to be a godsend to many hotel guests, especially those staying in city hotels for business reasons. They are habitual travellers who need certain things and usually get them, Internet connection in particular. As an old hotel that offers hospitality to both business and leisure travellers we try to strike a happy balance between services and amenities for both types of travellers. We provide electricity at all times (!) and offer satellite TV, but that is pretty much it really, even Internet access is only available at reception. We feel that the environment needs looking after as much as our guests, so we adhere to many means of saving energy. We don’t even have key card activation for the doors and electricity. And there’s no need for our receptionists to make long explanations to guests checking in, because all they really wish for is good solid rest and a fine meal. We welcome our guests to a restful, experiential stay, far from the frustration of electromagnetic smog fears! And we always trust our guests will return a second time."
Well, we certainly intend returning, but next time it will be for a holiday rather than work.

Often we have trouble facing the hotel breakfast buffet. After a month on the road we’re avoiding the bain-marie and its barely edible scrambled eggs and burnt-to-bits bacon. While some hotels really do take the trouble to do fresh eggs, often the cook doing the eggs is there as punishment for assorted kitchen crimes and it shows in the food. One of the problems is that the hotel is generally cooking for the expectations of foreign tourists and businesspeople-in-a-hurry, rather than locals and adventurous leisure travellers looking to try local food. Hence the generic bland scrambled eggs and burnt bacon, rather than a well-thought-out breakfast based on what's eaten locally. If you’re in Italy, why not just have an espresso and a coronet (croissant) and skip the stodge? In Germany, have some wonderful rye breads, cheese, and cold meats? In Greece? Then honey and yoghurt is the way to go. If everyone starts leaving the bain-marie alone, the hotels can put the resources to better use… and give travellers a better experience of local culture and a better start to the day.
The InterContinental Hotel Dubai Festival City does some of the best five-star hotel breakfasts we’ve ever experienced (including a delicious Arabic breakfast with piping hot flat bread made to order, as well as a range of breakfast treats from around the globe), so we asked the hotel's Executive Chef Geoff Haviland to respond: “Today’s world travelers are much more savvy and demanding than those of years past. A hotel’s breakfast experience can be a deciding factor in whether a guest returns to that hotel or not. We try to give our guests an 'In The Know' experience, which means they can sample cuisines from around the globe, and have them prepared live in front of them. Absolutely no stodgy scramblies to be found on our buffet! The concept of a live interactive buffet shows the guest we care about their needs, and want them to start their day with a WOW. The challenge in Dubai is that we have guests from every conceivable culture, so our kitchens really need to keep a close eye on our in-house guests and their tastes and preferences, to ensure our buffet features items they would find appealing.”
Unfortunately we were much too busy enjoying the InterCont’s breakfast last time we stayed to remember to take a photo! Pictured? The deliciously fresh fruit served for breakfast at Villa Rosmarino, Camogli, Italy.

If we go out to dinner one more time leaving laptops, cameras, phones, and batteries supposedly charging, only to find that the power goes off five seconds after we leave the room, we’re going to collectively scream. We don’t have a problem with the lights and the TV going off, but these days, surely just about everyone has at least a couple of devices that might need charging while they’re out. We’ve discovered recently that many ‘credit card’ style room keys even have microchips in them so that we can’t just insert any card in the slot to keep the power on (we have quite a collection of them, you see). Even getting two cards from reception and leaving one in when we go out has also failed recently because housekeeping has come in and turned down the bed anyway, removing our card on the way out – which didn’t do much for our hard drive backups that were underway! And yes, we did have the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door…
We recently stayed at the Ripa Hotel, Rome, a property boasting a contemporary design and decent amount of technology (and endearing old-fashioned extras such as champagne on ice!), that somehow still gets it right, so we asked General Manager, Arianna Roscioli, to respond: "One of the reasons guests don't have problems with doors and with the power at the Ripa is because we still use normal keys and we have a jack to turn on the power. We are not so hi-tech, yet we still provide guests with the latest technology, in-room internet access, a flat screen television, and a CD player. Personally, I think we should all try not to be so dependent on digital gadgets when travelling. I have three children from 9 to 18 and when we travel now we need a trolley just for all our cameras, laptops, ipod stations and cell phones. I guess that trying to save on utility expenses is important for any hotel in the world as well as being good for the planet, but I understand that some hotels are just a bit too much, and the rooms are more like a golden jail than a nice place to live and stay. I also don't like the electronic key system too much because it's not good for the health. I like to suggest that all travellers travel with a black tourmaline crystal to put near their laptop to neutralize the effects of electromagnetic radiation."

It shouldn’t be that hard. You have a cold tap? Make the colour on the tap blue. The hot tap? Make it red. Don’t put ‘C’ or ‘H’ on them, as for travellers from countries with Latin-derived languages, ‘C’ is not for cold but for caldo or caliente, which means HOT! Ouch! So why is it that lately we’ve felt like using every hotel bathroom is like being put through an intelligence test? We’ve been scolded, soaked, and clearly failed the exam. We've also failed to clearly grasp the logic of most contemporary bathroom designers, which seems to be to boldly design something that works in a way that defies conventional wisdom. Hotel bathroom designers seem to be going the way of toothpaste makers and razor companies, where there has to be a new gimmick to maintain interest in the product, which - no matter what they think - essentially performs a simple task. And as for the showers, baths and Jacuzzis themselves, nearly all the new designs we've sampled lately have managed to very successfully flood the bathroom - once you can get them running in the first place that is. We’re starting to put the bath towels on the floor to mop up the ensuing flood, and drying ourselves with the bath mats and hand towels. And don’t get us started with those hairdryers stuck to the walls...
As chic boutique hotel Villa Rosmarino at Camogli, Mount of Portofino, Italy, has some of the best-designed bathrooms (pictured) that we've road-tested recently (i.e. easy-to-use, spacious and light-filled with big sinks and big showers that don't flood), we asked owner-managers Fulvio Zendrini and Mario Pietraccetta to respond: "A hotel is a temporary home. It's also a travelling experience. But basically a bathroom is a place where you have to wash yourself and have other intimate experiences, which you are not going to share with everybody else! So, before thinking about candles all around your bathtub, let's have the toilet flush really work and the shower be really warm and the towels be many and clean. That's the basics. Then your hotel bathroom should be (if possible) the bathroom of your dreams: well designed, comfortable, with the right light, and the right ‘atmosphere’, the Italian marble, the hi-tech devices... the bathroom you dream of having at home. But first of all... it should be your comfortable retreat!"

Don’t get us wrong, we love Wi-Fi. We use it often. We’d use it more often except that hotels that promise Wi-Fi in every room are generally telling a little white (Wi-Fi) lie. And hotels that promise 'free' Wi-Fi that actually ends up being free are few and far between. It usually turns out that there’s only a signal in room 666 and in the foyer. Except to access the 'free' Wi-Fi in the foyer you have to log on and pay with your credit card. We've lost count of the number of times we’ve wandered hotel hallways looking for a signal. And that's even after we've double-checked that the hotel has Wi-Fi before booking the room and emailed the property to make sure we get a room with a wireless signal. Just last week, for example, we stayed in two five-star luxury hotels with Wi-Fi problems. In one of the hotels, the Wi-Fi router in our room was covered in dust and had never been connected to power. Ever. In the other, we had to stand in our hotel room doorway just to get enough signal to send emails. And these are hotels charging around €500 a night (not that we were paying that figure of course) and then have the hide to charge extra for Wi-FI – another annoyance. Give us good broadband access via cable and we’ll plug in our own Airport Express, thanks. At least we know it works!
A general manager of a large multinational five-star luxury hotel responds: "Wi-Fi is the bane of our existence. At our hotel, we have an outside company that handles it but we just can’t get them to provide a service that consistently works. It’s mind-boggling. We have to try and get out of our contract with them to get it fixed. It’s a nightmare. And we know our guests are not happy, but our hands are tied."
While we sympathise, if the Wi-Fi's not working properly then guests shouldn't be charged for it. Frankly, though, it should be free anyway. We don't know about you, but to us, it's the most essential thing in the room, more crucial than a television or telephone. What do you think?

You know the ones, those fixed coat hangers that don’t come off the rail in the cupboard. We always like to hang a few items of clothing when we get to our room and those stupid hangers are so annoying. We also like to take the hung clothes out of the cupboard and into the bathroom for a quick steam while we have a shower – it helps get out the little wrinkles. Those coat hangers really spoil our evening. Order an iron and ironing board, you say? We don’t want to go to that much trouble if we can avoid it and in some countries (hello, Italy!), they won’t send one to your room as it’s against fire safety laws. And if we’re only staying one night, there’s no chance we’re going to send anything out to be pressed as we may never see it again. Who steals those things anyway? And, let’s say someone does steal one once in a blue moon, why do we have pay for it by being treated like a potential thief?
A general manager of a large multinational hotel responds: “We don’t use fixed coat hangers in our hotel, but we do ‘lose’ several hundred of our good wooden hangers each month. We don’t want to use the fixed hangers as we appreciate they’re an inconvenience to guests. And a little tacky. But it’s strange to think that several times a day people are checking out of the hotel with our coat hangers in their bags! But that’s the price we’re willing to pay to keep our guests happy.”
The hotel may be happy to pay the price, but we're not. Does this drive anyone else nuts, or is it just us?

Sure we could just ask for an ice bucket for that nice bottle of crisp white or bubbly we bought at the airport duty free. But we want to put it in the mini bar in the room that we’ve paid for. And that's not always as easy as it should be. Those sensors that automatically charge to your account anything that you move in the mini bar are a little too ‘big brother’ for us. Just what are people doing to the mini bar contents that has made this so necessary? And they're even doing it in five-star luxury properties? They sure are.
A general manager of a large multinational hotel responds: “Scotch bottles filled with tea, vodka replaced with water, beer cans opened every-so-slightly, emptied, then put back in the fridge... The list is endless! And we just don’t have time to take out every item in every mini bar everyday to check if it’s still intact. But at our hotel we still don’t use the sensor system - despite it obviously being more efficient - because it treats the guests like criminals. However, when we do refurbish the rooms it will be hard not to consider installing them because we lose a lot of money each day through people tampering with the contents of the fridge.”
Well, you know who you are. Will you please just give it up.
So, what annoys you about hotels?

I'd like to introduce you to the first in an ongoing series of short travel industry-focused posts about the things worth celebrating and those that we can do without when we travel. Terry* and I want to start by sharing with you the little quirks we find annoying about hotels. As we spend some 300+ nights a year with a number on our door, we’ll warn you now: we have some strong opinions. But then hotels are an important (and an expensive) part of travel, right? Rather than make you simply read our gripes, and partly to satisfy our own curiosity, we’re putting our complaints to respected hoteliers in the industry to find out why hotels persist with some of these irritating practices that drive us crazy. As you’ll see, we’re allowing the hotel staff to remain anonymous so they can feel free to tell it like it is. First up… 10 things we find annoying about hotels...

* Terry is my husband, co-author, photographer and room-mate