Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hotels and Hassles
Creators Syndicate ^ | November 20, 2012 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 11/19/2012 1:11:27 PM PST by jazusamo

Few things can make you appreciate home like staying in a hotel. This includes not only low-budget, bare bones hotels but also sweepingly large and ornate luxury hotels. What many hotels seem to have in common are needless hassles.

Since most people who stay in hotels do so while traveling, and stay only a few days in a given hotel, you might think that those who run hotels would want to make it easy for someone who arrives a little tired (or a lot tired) from traveling to use the various devices they find in their hotel room. But you would be wrong. That thought never seems to have crossed their minds.

Recently, at a well-known luxury hotel in Los Angeles, I found that something as simple as turning on a television set can require a phone call to the front desk, and then waiting for the arrival of a technician. Then it took another phone call to get a list of which of the dozens of channels were for which networks.

Why the turning on of a television set should be anything other than obvious to a newly arrived hotel guest is apparently a question that never occurred to the people who ran this hotel. Nor did it apparently ever occur to them that someone just arriving from a journey might want to be able to relax, instead of having to cope with complications that the hotel could easily have avoided.

The next morning, in the shower, I found myself confronted with a dazzling array of knobs and levers, none of which provided any clue as to what they did. The lever rotated and four of the surrounding knobs both rotated and tilted forward and backward.

(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: sowell; thomassowell
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last
To: Still Thinking
...Good (though not infallible) rule of thumb is: Clear = shampoo; milky = conditioner...

Yeah, but that only works if the containers are see-thru. :)

41 posted on 11/20/2012 6:17:15 AM PST by FReepaholic (Stupidity is not a crime, so you're free to go.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: outofsalt

42 posted on 11/20/2012 6:20:03 AM PST by FReepaholic (Stupidity is not a crime, so you're free to go.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
No amount of fancy things makes up for hassles.

This is typical of businesses that define value FOR the customer instead of listening to the customers idea of value.

43 posted on 11/20/2012 6:29:20 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: 21twelve
So I'm staying at this motel that had only one TV channel. In the morning while I was getting ready I was watching Sesame Street.

They were doing this bit where some clown was trying to wash his hands but kept washing his feet or his elbows and Elmo would go, “no mister noodle, your HANDS!” and all the tv kids would laugh.

Around the fourth or fifth time he couldn’t find his hands, I heard a grown man yell from somewhere else in the motel, “G**DAMMIT, MR. NOODLE.”

44 posted on 11/20/2012 6:41:39 AM PST by Straight Vermonter (Posting from deep behind the Maple Curtain)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: FReepaholic

Well, the rule sometimes applies to the containers as well. Plus, if you’re like me, you don’t use conditioner anyway, so if they’re both milky and you put one in and it doesn’t lather, rinse it out and use the other one.


45 posted on 11/20/2012 10:52:57 AM PST by Still Thinking (Freedom is NOT a loophole!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick; jazusamo

You wouldn’t want that TC.

They would come back with bedbugs. ;-)


46 posted on 11/21/2012 4:45:24 PM PST by fanfan ("But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo

Any phone number given to Hilton hotels will result in that phone being called forever with more and more telemarketing sales. Never give out a real phone number to hotels. I usually find the corporate phone number of the hotel and give them that one. Never has an employee caught that the number was their own.


47 posted on 11/21/2012 4:49:46 PM PST by CodeToad (Liberals are bloodsucking ticks. We need to light the matchstick to burn them off.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CodeToad
LOL!

An excellent idea.

48 posted on 11/21/2012 4:55:35 PM PST by jazusamo ("Intellect is not wisdom" -- Thomas Sowell)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 47 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

The following letters are taken from an actual incident between a London hotel and one of its guests last year. The hotel ended up submitting the letters to the Sunday Times.

Dear Maid,
Please do not leave any more of those little bars of soap in my bathroom since I have brought my own bath-sized Imperial Leather. Please remove the six unopened little bars from the shelf under the medicine chest and another three in the shower soap dish. They are in my way.
Thank you,
S. Berman

Dear Room 635,
I am not your regular maid. She will be back tomorrow, Thursday, from her day off. I took the 3 hotel soaps out of the shower soap dish as you requested. The 6 bars on your shelf I took out of your way and put on top of your Kleenex dispenser in case you should change your mind. This leaves only the 3 bars I left today which my instructions from the management are to leave 3 soaps daily. I hope this is satisfactory.
Kathy, Relief Maid

Dear Maid,
I hope you are my regular maid. Apparently Kathy did not tell you about my note to her concerning the little bars of soap. When I got back to my room this evening, I found you had added 3 little Camays to the shelf under my medicine cabinet. I am going to be here in the hotel for two weeks and have brought my own bath-size Imperial Leather, so I won’t need those 6 little Camays, which are on the shelf. They are in the way when shaving, brushing teeth etc. Please remove them.
S. Berman

Dear Mr Berman,
The assistant manager, Mr Kensedder, informed me this morning that you called him last evening and said you were unhappy with your maid service. I have assigned a new girl to your room. I hope you will accept my apologies for any past inconvenience. If you have any future complaints, please contact me so I can give it my personal attention. Call extension 1108 between 8AM and 5PM.
Thank you.
Elaine Carmen > Housekeeper

Dear Miss Carmen,
It is impossible to contact you by phone since I leave the hotel for business at 7:45 AM and don’t get back before 5:30 or 6.00 PM. That’s the reason I called Mr Kensedder last night. You were already off duty. I only asked Mr Kensedder if he could do anything about those little bars of soap. The new maid you assigned me must have thought I was a new check in today, since she left another 3 bars of hotel soap in my medicine cabinet, along with her regular delivery of 3 bars on the bathroom shelf. In just 5 days here I have accumulated 24 little bars of soap.
Why are you doing this to me?
S. Berman

Dear Mr Berman,
Your maid, Kathy, has been instructed to stop delivering soap to your room and to remove the extra soaps. If I can be of further assistance, please call extension 1108 between 8 AM and 5 PM.
Thank you,
Elaine Carmen, > Housekeeper

Dear Mr Kensedder,
My bath-size Imperial Leather is missing. Every bar of soap was taken from my room, including my own bath-size Imperial Leather. I came in late last night and had to call the bellhop to bring me 4 little Cashmere Bouquets.
S. Berman

Dear Mr Berman,
I have informed our housekeeper, Elaine Carmen, of your soap problem. I cannot understand why there was no soap in your room since our maids are instructed to leave 3 bars of soap each time they service a room. The situation will be rectified immediately. Please accept my apologies for the inconvenience.
Martin L. Kensedder Assistant Manager > > >

Dear Mrs Carmen,
Who the hell left 54 little bars of Camay in my room? I came in last night and found 54 little bars of soap. I don’t want 54 little bars of Camay. I want my one damn bar of bath-size Imperial Leather. Do you realise I have 54 bars of soap in here? All I want is my bath-size Imperial Leather. Please give me back my bath-size Imperial Leather.
S. Berman

Dear Mr Berman,
You complained of too much soap in your room, so I had them removed. Then you complained to Mr Kensedder that all your soap was missing, so I personally returned them. The 24 Camays which had been taken and the 3 Camays you are supposed to receive daily. I don’t know anything about the 4 Cashmere Bouquets. Obviously your maid, Kathy, did not know I had returned your soaps, so she also brought 24 Camays plus the 3 daily Camays. I don’t know where you got the idea this hotel issues bath-size Imperial Leather. I was able to locate some bath-size Ivory which I left in your room.
Elaine Carmen > Housekeeper > > >

Dear Mrs Carmen,
Just a short note to bring you up-to-date on my latest soap inventory. As of today I possess:
* On the shelf under the medicine cabinet -18 Camay in 4 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
* On the Kleenex dispenser - 11 Camay in 2 stacks of 4 and 1stack of 3.
* On the bedroom dresser - 1 stack of 3 Cashmere Bouquet, 1 stack of 4 hotel-size Ivory, and 8 Camay in 2 stacks of 4.
* Inside the medicine cabinet - 14 Camay in 3 stacks of 4 and 1 stack of 2.
* In the shower soap dish - 6 Camay, very moist.
* On the northeast corner of the tub - 1 Cashmere Bouquet, slightly used.
* On the northwest corner of the tub - 6 Camays in 2 stacks of 3. Please ask Kathy when she services my room to make sure the stacks are neatly piled and dusted. Also, please advise her that stacks of more than 4 have a tendency to tip. May I suggest that my bedroom window sill is not in use and will make an excellent spot for future soap deliveries. One more item, I have purchased another bar of bath-size Imperial Leather, which I am keeping in the hotel vault in order to avoid further misunderstandings.
S. Berman


49 posted on 11/21/2012 5:12:40 PM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (Fate plays chess and you don't find out until too late that he's been using two queens all along)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: jazusamo
I'm pretty much self-sufficient when I go to a hotel room these days. I never need to even turn the TV on or use the phone because I bring my laptop, cell phone and tablet with which I can watch my own movies/shows or surf the net. Only thing I really have to figure out is how to turn the shower on - which can sometimes be a challenge.

I even pack my own "adult beverages" as the mini-bars in these hotels tend to make everything smaller and more expensive.

50 posted on 11/21/2012 5:17:18 PM PST by SamAdams76
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

I just read this to my wife and our ribs are hurting from laughing so hard.


51 posted on 11/21/2012 5:26:02 PM PST by TADSLOS (LOSING BIG- The GOP legacy.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: fanfan

Oy, I’d forgotten about bedbugs! (We just have bed-cats at our house ;-).


52 posted on 11/22/2012 6:24:27 AM PST by Tax-chick (Are you getting ready for the Advent Kitteh?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

LOL!


53 posted on 11/22/2012 6:25:48 AM PST by Tax-chick (Are you getting ready for the Advent Kitteh?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

Keep your brood out of hotels, and you shouldn’t have to worry about bedbugs.
Have you watched any of Gordan Ramsey’s Hotel Hell? It’s on Youtube. Between that and his Kitchen Nightmare series, I may never leave my home for food and lodging again.


54 posted on 11/25/2012 1:11:44 PM PST by fanfan ("But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 52 | View Replies]

To: fanfan

Yes, I think we saw an episode or two of “Hotel Hell” while we were at the lake house in September.

Even compared to a fairly high-end vacation property, I still prefer my own home ... although I wouldn’t mind if it had a dock and a lake view!


55 posted on 11/25/2012 2:26:41 PM PST by Tax-chick (Are you getting ready for the Advent Kitteh?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 54 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

At least if your home is dirty, it’s your dirt.


56 posted on 11/26/2012 1:36:15 PM PST by fanfan ("But if Muslims were asked to go to church on Sunday and take Holy Communion there would be war.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 55 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-56 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson