★ “The Ten Most Annoying Mistakes Made By Luxury Hotels”

via Huffington Post (which I want to puke just linking to but understand that the web is just that way these days. I hope the Internet gods don’t ban me for linking to HuffPo):

Paul Carr who is quickly becoming one of my favorite “life bloggers” has shared a few gripes to A) Educate us. B) Entertain us. C) Sell more books. Here are my favorite points:

7. Hotels That Think They’re Nightclubs

With well-stocked minibars and 24-hour room service, hotel rooms have always a great place to continue a party started at a nightclub. Recently though a new breed of party hotels has appeared, aiming to keep the whole night under one roof by turning the entire hotel into a giant bed-filled nightclub. Bouncers on the front door, a preposterous dress code (a dress code!) and $600 table service in the lobby bar — and don’t get me started on front desk staff and waitresses who look good enough to be models but lack the customer service skills of… well… models. Clift in San Francisco, I’m looking at you.

This made me laugh a bit only because, the only place I’ve ever been approached by a prostitute in my life was at the Clift Hotel in San Francisco. No joke. That place has a nice decor but the expensive drinks mean that the people hanging out there are most likely rich.

2. Paid Wifi

I remember, in about 1987, staying at a crappy b&b on a family trip to the English seaside town of Blackpool. The place was so cheap that to operate the television, you had to drop 10p (about 15c) into a little box on the wall. Today’s children will look back with equal sadness at the days where they had to enter their parents’ credit card details just to log on to Facebook.

and my biggest gripe about staying in pricey hotels:

1. Glass bathrooms

Seriously, whose idea of a sick joke was this? Which moronic – but apparently widely emulated – hotel designer walked into a meeting and announced that the problem with hotel bathrooms was they offered too much privacy? His solution: “glass showers, glass toilet doors — glass everything!” It’s bad enough at the Standard in New York — a hotel which at least prides itself in being a place for exhibitionists — but now everyone is getting in on the act. As a friend of mine staying at the new Yotel in Manhattan texted me the other night: “nothing says ‘romantic getaway’ like seeing your partner take a dump.”

I rarely share rooms these days but, when I’m not traveling work, I am generally sharing the room with a friend and, sometimes there are curtains that keep you from seeing in the bathroom while in the living area but not always. This feature means that you’re not showering until your friend is out and about because, from the desk / bed / sofa, he / she can see you showering, peeing and changing. It’s rough and pointless. I guess it’s meant to be romantic but, even after being married to someone, I can’t imagine they’d like to see everything I do in the bathroom no matter how close we are.

You can FINALLY buy Paul’s Book “The Upgrade” via Amazon Kindle (why would you buy the physical version?)

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