When you become a guest in a hotel, you need to recognize that you are moving into a temporary communal living situation. Of course, you have your private room, but you are sill under one roof with others. You share some of the hotel's features with many other people. Therefore, the hotel has set up a few reasonable guidelines to maintain a cordial atmosphere and to avert utter confusion.
The following are questions, complaints or problems that on occasion occur during a hotel stay. Hopefully, you will find these helpful tips to avoid stress during your hotel stay.
1) I didn't get my wake up call. This is a tough one for the hotel to defend. However, sometimes the computer does document that the phone call to the room was picked up. Maybe you picked up the phone and went back to sleep. If you're really up tight about an early departure or making your business appointment on time, I suggest that you take a small travel alarm clock with you. Some hotels have placed alarm clocks in each of the rooms, so you can set the wake up call yourself.
2) The people next door are noisy. If that is the case, make the front desk clerk aware of it. Don't confront directly your neighbors. Let a third party negotiator take the heat off of a situation that is a potential powder keg about to explode. If you are not comfortable with the mediation, ask kindly to be transferred.
3) I want a quiet room. At check-in if a quiet room is top on your priority list, make it be known before you actually go to your room. Most hotels want to accommodate their guests. However, remember that if you also say that you want to be poolside, you have conflicting requests. The reason is most rooms that are poolside will be somewhat noisy because of the activity in and around the pool. Your responsibility is to decide either for the quiet room or the poolside one. There are numerous instances of other conflicting requests.
4) I can't get room service. Many hotels have set hours for room service as well as for the restaurant and bar. Generally, this is information you should verify at check-in, if it is important to you.
5) No maid service, please. Most places have a card to put on the door to alert the maids not to clean the room, leave towels or make the beds. The misunderstanding arises when you assume that the maid will return to clean the room once the card is removed. Usually, the maid will stop by the room once during the day. When you return to the room after a day at the beach and there are no clean towels, it was probably because the maid came by when the card was on the door. If you want service later in the day, remember to ask before the maids leave for the day.
6) Where's my dry cleaning? Some hotels serve as a pick up site for offsite dry cleaners. Therefore, you must know when the pick up time is, or otherwise you may have only dirty, wrinkled clothes to wear. If you do not notify the front desk clerk on Friday morning before the pick up, you may have to wait until Monday at 6:00 PM before you can have your clothes ready to wear.
7) Why can't the van driver take us to the shopping mall? Well, most hotel courtesy vans have a maximum driving distance. For example, an airport hotel caters to the air travelers, but may also go a radius of only 2 miles from the hotel for other trips.
8) There's a plumbing problem. You should notify the front desk clerk to send a houseman to help. If it is a major problem, the front desk clerk may ask if you would like to be transferred to another room. Sometimes this is an option and sometimes it is required. For example, if there is a water leak from the room above, the maintenance department may have to do work that will be intrusive and loud. It isn't much of an inconvenience to move if asked to go. Besides, the houseman will help you with your luggage.
9) My room is occupied. Although hotels are quite vigilant to insure they don't send you to an occupied room, knocking gently on the door before you enter is a safety precaution. If you hear voices from your room before you enter, contact the front desk clerk before you open the door.
10) My room is dirty. To tell you the truth, if the front desk clerk sent you to a dirty room on check-in, all the quality control checks in the system failed. Although this is definitely an unacceptable practice, most times you can simply be sent to another room that is what you anticipated and deserved.
11) I can't get the air conditioner to work. Don't panic and assume that you have to be transferred. Have the front desk clerk go over the instructions on how to use the cooling or heating system. Maybe the thermostat controls were incorrectly set. If that does not work, the houseman can evaluate it.
12) Why can't I take glass containers to the pool area? This is for safety reasons to prevent the possibility that someone may walk barefoot on broken glass. Just pour your beverage into a paper or plastic cup.
13) What do you mean the room rate is $199 a night? It is better to verify the room rate before you actually check-in rather than at check-out. Some hotels ask guests to initial the rate on the registration card to avoid any misunderstandings about the rate.
14) You charged me too much tax on the room. Remember that many jurisdictions have state and local taxes plus a bed tax. Consequently, the state tax may be 7%, and the law may require the hotel to charge an additional 3% for what is commonly called the bed tax or hotel tax. If you are eligible for tax-exempt status, clarify what documentation is required, when you make your reservation.
15) Why can't I put my restaurant charge on my room? You may have paid by cash for the room and tax. Many hotels require that you use a credit card on check-in, if you want to place restaurant and incidental charges on your room. In fact, some hotels may require that you provide a credit card on check-in as a way to protect the hotel against having to pay if a room has been damaged. Others may require a cash deposit, if you pay by cash for the room on check-in.
16) I don't have my identification card. If you are requesting a special discount on the room rate, you may be required to present an identification card to document that you are affiliated with the organization that is entitled to the discount. If you are paying by cash, the hotel may ask for photo identification such as a valid driver's license, state issued identification card or passport.
17) Thanks, but I don't need my bill. I suggest that you review the charges to your room before you actually depart. It is better to correct any mistakes at check-out rather than get a big surprise when you receive your monthly credit card statement. Suppose you stayed in room 107 and did not make any restaurant charges to your room. Suppose the person in room 109 put his restaurant charge for a party of 6 persons on his room. When the waitress gave him the restaurant receipt, he hastily and carelessly wrote his room number as what looked like 107 instead of 109. This may have resulted from having a sloppy handwriting or inadvertently forgetting his room number. If you choose to think so, maybe it was intentional. To further complicate matters, his signature was totally illegible. When the restaurant charge was posted in the computer, room 107 received the charge. That is why you need to review your bill. Avoid having to spend your precious time on the phone a month later explaining that you had your meals elsewhere and you want your credit card credited the amount in question.
18) I can't get on the Internet. Call the front desk clerk and inquire if other people are experiencing the same difficulty. This may be a system wide problem that is already known. If that is not the case, ask for the local instructions to go online which may require a code. If that does not help, make sure your firewall is not interfering. If you are using wireless, insure you are in the designated area to receive the signal. Frequently, there is a toll free number to talk to a support person about technical issues.
Most hotels want to be as accommodating to you as they possibly can because they want you to return and stay with them again. Tell them what you want and give them enough time to devise a solution to your request. If an unexpected problem arises, you are responsible to notify the appropriate employee when the problem arises. Don't wait until you check-out, because you will have then removed the opportunity for them to take the necessary corrective action.