Anyone who has checked into a stylish hotel only to find the toilet behind clear glass knows the feeling. Travel writer Ben Schlappig of One Mile at a Time has updated his running list of hotel gripes to 16 — and while some are trivial, several point at real problems travellers should push back on.
The money issue comes first for most people: destination, resort and urban fees. These add anywhere from $10 to $100 a day on top of the quoted rate, and exist largely so hotels can advertise a lower headline price and pay commissions only on the room rate portion. Then there's the service side. Schlappig ranks stingy treatment of loyalty-program elite members — fights over late checkout, breakfast or upgrades — among his biggest frustrations, alongside scripted front-desk patter that inserts your surname into every sentence. His verdict: he'd rather have a genuinely friendly agent at a budget chain than a robotic one at a luxury flag.
Design choices get plenty of blame too. Glass-walled bathrooms and bedrooms with freestanding bathtubs look great on Instagram and terribly in real life. Decorative pillows and throw blankets rarely get washed between guests, so they're best treated as germ hazards rather than décor. Complicated shower controls you can't operate without getting sprayed, weak water pressure dressed up as eco-friendliness, and showers that flood the bathroom floor all make the list.
Room functionality is another theme. Hotels have spent years removing desks, hiding light switches behind apps and mystery panels, and installing furniture that offers nowhere comfortable to sit beyond the bed. Add in missing power outlets by the bedside, in-room TVs that blast an advert the moment you walk in, burned-out bulbs and alarm clocks left set from the last guest, and gyms that don't open until 8am — a real problem for anyone on a jet-lagged schedule — and you have a checklist of things worth mentioning at check-in.
The takeaway for travellers is straightforward: most of these annoyances are fixable if you flag them early. Ask housekeeping to remove the decorative pillows, request a room with a proper desk if you're working, and check the lights and outlets in the first five minutes so problems get solved while you're still there. On fees, several US cities and states now require hotels to disclose resort and destination fees upfront, so you can often see the true total before booking — and some chains will waive them for loyalty members who push. As for bookings, comparing the total price including fees across a chain's own site and an agency is often the only way to know what you're actually paying.
None of this requires you to be a difficult guest. It just means knowing what a reasonable baseline looks like — working lights, a private bathroom, honest pricing, coffee before 9am — and asking for it. If a hotel can't manage the basics, there's usually another property down the street that can.