Does It Bother Anyone Else?

I am not one of the big road warriors out there. I travel just enough to maintain silver status with the airline (that’s their lowest level.) I travel just enough to keep from going stir crazy in the office.   I travel just enough that, while I may look familiar, the people at the rental car booth don’t exactly know who I am. 

That being said, I travel enough that I can tell when I’m the victim of a fatal design flaw.  And, I have been doing a lot of travel lately, and that fatal design flaw keeps haunting me.
I’m speaking of hotel rooms. And my complaint is quite simple. Most hotels go out of their way to make sure that the business traveler has a nice desk setup. This includes plenty of outlets and internet hookups and light and anything else to make it relatively easy to work from the room.
Then why is it they seem to always put the desk right next to the air conditioner. Which means I either get to freeze to death as the arctic gale blows exactly where I’m sitting, or swelter if I keep the temperature up high enough so the winds don’t blow.
And that’s not the worst of it. The hotels also do an excellent job of getting top of the line televisions in the rooms – lots of channels, lots of choices, lots of HD. And, invariably, they set them inside a fancy cabinet which means it cannot be seen from that desk. (You remember the desk – the one that is perched on the frozen tundra.) I have to have the television on to work – and I have to be able to see it. (How else am I supposed to catch up on Robot Chicken?) In some worst case scenarios, I’ve moved the desk (cords and all) towards the center of the room.
Okay, not end of the world stuff. But, come on…is there anyone really thinking about these things when they plan out the rooms?
And what’s the deal with airline food.

Posted on Sep 19, 2011 by Mike Jacka

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  Comments (6) un-categorized
  1. Comment by: Janet   (9/19/11 12:20 PM)   

    I often re-arrange the hotel room to suit my needs when traveling so you are not alone.  In many cases though, things are not movable - or you wish you hadn't moved them because then you see how superfical the past cleaning efforts have been...

  1. Comment by: Sara   (9/19/11 02:32 PM)   

    This drives me crazy.  If I'm lucky enough to have a small suite, I take my laptop to the couch so I can be in front of the tv while I work.  But I've never tried moving the furniture, probably for fear of Janet's reasoning.

    My next biggest issue with hotel set-ups is when there is no place close to the bed to plug in my phone, which I use as my alarm clock.

    I could probably go on and on about this topic, but I'll restrain myself.  Think there's a way to make money out of marketing our "expertise" to the hotel chains?

  1. Comment by: memento mori   (9/19/11 11:46 PM)   

    Then that is the right time to make them bankrupt and then nature abhors a vacuum and you will again enjoy the service.

  1. Comment by: Mike Jacka   (9/20/11 08:44 PM)   

    I had another experience on the trip I'm on, and this one is going to be a little mean.  But I can't help it.  Who's idea was it to start letting people carry those small little dogs with them on planes.  The noises from the dachsund in the carrying case in front of me was 10 times worse than any child.

    (And here's the mean part.)  Most of those small dogs look to me like they were designed to be drop kicked through the goal posts - and there's a dachsund out there that, had I been given the chance, would have been good for three points.

  1. Comment by: Sue Neal   (9/21/11 01:18 PM)    So, were you the airline passenger that tried to open a door during flight a few days ago? It wouldn't have to be open very far to exit a dachshund! (Or even a dachsund ;o) )
  1. Comment by: phone bill management   (9/27/11 12:48 PM)   http://www.telanalysis.com I know, it's a horrible set up and I just tell I'm not nearly as productive if they switched it up a bit!

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