A quiet room? I’m sorry, we don’t have any of those

by Doug Lipp on February 9, 2009

connecting-door-grrr

All seasoned road warriors know the drill. At check-in, to ensure a blissful stay, ask for a room away from ice-makers, elevators, party people and the newlyweds.

But too often, the staff who check us in don’t seem to know anything about the layout of their own property. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve arrived in a hotel, usually during the wee hours of the morning, 15 time zones away from home, after a long-delayed flight finally arrived, to find that’s true.

Needless to say, I’m spent. However, in spite of being semi-comatose, I always follow the time-tested script and ask for a room using the aforementioned criteria … with one additional request: “No connecting door, puleeeze!”

The scenario usually goes something like this:

Me: (Bloodshot eyes half-shut, slumped shoulders, rumpled and coffee-stained clothing). “I’d like a really quiet room. I repeat, quiet is my priority. In fact, I don’t even need a bed, just a q-u-i-e-t room. You know, not near elevators and icemakers.

Front Desk Guy: “Not a problem, sir. I see you are a premium member, so we’ll put you on our executive level. ”

Me: “You can put me in the basement, just make sure my room is quiet. Oh, one more thing, please make sure it doesn’t have a connecting door to another room … you know how sound travels through those doors, right?”

Front Desk Guy: “Of course, you are all taken care of, enjoy your stay.”

We all know what happens next: Arrive at our room … looks safe, miles away from the nearest ice-maker or elevator, but … upon entering the room … there it is: the connecting door. Grrrrr!

So, here’s a challenge to all hotel managers: How about including an accurate schematic of your rooms in the training packets of all front desk personnel? Load it onto their computers, glue it to office bulletin boards. What ever it takes, just do it!

For those managers who think this is too difficult a task, copy this fine little saying and share it with your team:

The greater danger for most if us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.

Doug Lipp is the author of Stuck in the Middle Seat.

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Tagged as: employee training, front desk staff, hotel management, noisy hotel rooms

  • Lyngengr

    I too seem to be more sensitive about noise than most people who stay in hotels, at least as far as the front desk clerks tell me! Anyway, I have a strategy that seems to work. When you are checking in, ask for a map of the property and have the clerk show you where you’re room is. If it is not where I want to be (overlooking a freeway, good view of a runway, etc.) I ask them to move me. I guess you could also inquire about the connecting room at that point as well.

  • Allison

    Many moons ago I worked in the hotel industry and did my time at the front desk. The computer system should indicate which rooms are connecting (and to which other room) so there is no excuse for that mistake.

    More challenging were all the other factors mentioned. Some properties have a quieter side and those rooms always went first. So if you are stumbling to the desk to check in at midnight, chances are all the rooms on the “good” side are already full. My suggestion is if you frequently stay at the same property, include in the notes section of your reservation a request to stay on a certain side and describe it in the note. Frequent stay or high status guests are almost always pre-assigned rooms anyway and the manager should know enough to put those guests in the “better” rooms.

  • justcorbly

    There’s more than ignorance of their own property going on. Sometimes simple indifference suffices.

    Last year, I checked into a hotel in Louisiana, a room that I reserved several weeks in advance. Parties ensued in both adjacent rooms. Following several calls, at 3 a.m. someone at the desk told me, “They’re just doing what we expect them to do. People come here to party. You’re just one person.”

  • Frank

    We all know what happens next: Arrive at our room … looks safe, miles away from the nearest ice-maker or elevator, but … upon entering the room … there it is: the connecting door. Grrrrr!
    ===================================================

    Ok, Doug!!!! This is too strange. I was on a layover the other day, entered my room and overheard the crewmember in the next room. Why? The connecting door. It allows way too much sound coming from the next room. I turned my TV, way up, hoping the co-worker would get the hint.

    Years ago, I was awaken by screams coming from the room next door. I laid there in the dark, listening to an argument. Upon hearing glass break and screams, I reached for the phone, called the front desk and requested Security.
    Banging on the door followed. I stayed in my room. Eventually fell back to sleep.

  • Judy

    I remember once after a very long lay over, A bus ride for almost three hours to get to another airport because ours was not letting planes leave, then two plane changes before we left the new airport the 5 1/2 hour plane ride, getting the rental car, driving another 45 minutes to our destination. Checking into The hotel and getting neighbors who made noise all night long. That happen to me two years ago. The next morning I was not someone to talk to with no sleep for almost two days even coffee did not help. I called the front desk even went to the room next door which no one ever answered. The next morning I gave the front desk a piece of my mind they could have moved me, but did not so the manager gave me that night for free and changed my room.

  • LeeAnne

    Okay, I’m sorry, but I just can’t help myself. Why why why do people not seem willing to use the one,foolproof, incredibly cheap, unfailingly effective solution to the problem of noisey accomodations when traveling?

    EAR PLUGS!

    Slip those puppies in, and off I go to dreamland. There would have to be either a teenage keg party, or a entire flotilla of energetic newlyweds, in the room next door to wake me up.

    So why not use them?

    You just can’t ever guarantee that you won’t have a noise issue when traveling. Some of the nicest, priciest hotels have rooms over a bar, or next to a freeway. I’ve stayed in top-of-the-line suites on cruise ships that happened to be under the pool deck, where crew start scraping chairs across the deck at 5am to put them out for the early risers. And no matter how carefully you select your room, you just never know if you’re going to end up next to that soon-to-be-divorced couple, or even worse, the parents with an colicky infant who don’t realize how piercing the sound of their darling baby’s squalls are at 3am.

    None of these noise generators bother me anymore. Why? Because I wear EAR PLUGS! I wouldn’t dream of traveling without them.

    No more trying to explain my desires for a quiet room to a front-desk clerk who barely speaks English. No more having to walk several minutes to the closest elevator because you asked to be located far away from them. No more studying schematics of hotels or cruise ships to find the rooms that don’t have adjoining doors or nearby icemakers. I have full run of the ship or hotel, because none of those things will interrupt my peaceful slumber ever again.

    Given how simple the solution to this problem is, I simply cannot find any empathy in my heart. for people who complain about noisey accommodations.

    They cost pennies – literally pennies. Try some next time.

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