A friend on Facebook this morning, who’s a manager at a hotel, said that a guest had complained to him that the hotel did not have bread available 24/7. And that’s a new one, right there. And I nearly wrote this in the comments, but decided I’d just take it to the blog. (He said he nearly responded, “That’s what convenience stores are for.”)
I’m going to preface the below by saying I am usually pretty satisfied with the hotels we stay in. We don’t stay at the bargain chains at least partly because I prefer not to have to keep a gun on my nightstand and my wife is terrified of bedbugs. Not that even the expensive places are immune to either, but the chances are better that neither will be an issue. We also like sumptuous bedding and big fluffy towels and other various amenities that are offered by the more, shall we say “up-scale” establishments. Also points. We loves us some points.
That said: Seriously, the only thing that truly irritates me about hotels is that when I ask for a feather-free room (because my wife is violently allergic to down feathers), 9 times out of 10 they haven’t done it by the time we get there (even when we have late check-in, and we always guarantee our reservations with a credit card, so they KNOW we’re coming), and we have to call down to get that done. This failure seems to cross brand lines and happens in every part of the country where we’ve stayed — even at hotels where we’ve stayed multiple times. Complaining about it has done little to no good, except Hyatt did comp us some points one time when my wife marched up to the desk and bitched. After I also complained about the problem in a response to one of their “how was your stay?” questionnaires, I actually got a phone call from a Hyatt representative, who apologized profusely, and also entered a permanent notation in my World of Hyatt account regarding featherless bedding, which is more than Hilton or Marriott or IHG have offered to do.
Yes, I know, they don’t read the “special requests” until the last minute. Maybe a supervisor needs to read the special requests BEFORE they make up the rooms. We shouldn’t have to call ahead to remind them when it’s right there in our reservation. Honestly I do not feel as if we are asking for something special; I’m sure lots of people prefer non-feather bedding, and I honestly don’t understand why hotels don’t just have some rooms set up like that to begin with.
And finding that they haven’t done their job as we asked them to do really pisses me off if I’ve just been eight to ten hours on the road and all I want to do is go to bed.
But I’d never complain that they didn’t have 24/7 bread availability. 🙂
I have stayed in more hotels than your average bear. I have spent an average of 50 nights a year in hotels for more than two decades (at one point the average was closer to 125-150 nights a year). There are people who stay more, but that is still more hotel nights in one year than most people spend in a lifetime.
I have stayed in very nice hotels. I have stayed in lousy hotels. I have stayed in chains and independents.
I have stayed in hotels on three continents, in 40 plus states, and 13 countries.
Some hotels have served cookies at peak check-in time. Many have free coffee in the lobby,.
No hotel I have ever stayed in had free bread available.
That bread guy is an idiot.