What is the difference between a bad hotel and a good one?

Sergei Dolya says: “For the past few years, I have been living in different hotels for more than half a year and have developed criteria for myself on how to immediately determine that you are in a bad hotel ...”

(Total 10 photos)

Mini bar

1. The farther from Moscow, the more often hotels come across with an empty mini-bar in the room. That is, the owners of these hotels have heard that there should be a mini-bar in the room, but they do not understand why it is needed there. Often a minibar is a full-size refrigerator that isn't even plugged into the mains. Is it hard to put some water in there?

Dear hotel owners, all over the world, when you check in, a deposit is taken from a person, either in cash or by credit card, so that he can spend it on your minibar. A minibar is an additional source of income for you, because you can set prices there like in a restaurant. And at check-out, you can always check the room and keep part of the deposit if the guest encroaches on the contents of the mini-bar.

Another observation: if the owners managed to hide the mini-bar in the closet, then in 90% of cases the cabinet door will open in one direction, and the refrigerator door in the other. At the same time, a ringing emptiness will be found inside, despite announcements that you need to pay separately for the content of the minibar.

"Disinfected"

2. If there is a “disinfected” sign on the toilet or sink, then the owner of the hotel has remained in the distant Soviet past, when cleanliness and order were a separate option. All toilets must be clean by default! This is such an elementary rule that it does not even require discussion. If they try to sell you the basic condition under the guise of special care, this is alarming.

Towels

3. The first place we usually go after checking in is the shower and toilet. The number of towels and their size clearly show the attitude of the hotel owners towards their client. A good host puts a few towels: one for the feet (we put it on the floor instead of a rug), two for the body (large and small), another for the hands and a couple of tiny ones just in case. Moreover, the room should always have two sets of towels, regardless of whether you live in it alone or together.

In a bad hotel, the number of towels is reduced to two, their size decreases, the thickness becomes thinner and they become washed-over-washed. In really bad hotels, towels are not white, but dark blue or some other “non-white” color. Guess why.

4. One more observation. Sometimes, even in good hotels, towels are placed on the bed instead of in the bathroom. Without foreseeing a dirty trick, you climb into the shower, and then are forced to curse and spank naked and wet around the room in search of a towel. All towels must be in the bathroom!

Bed sheets

5. Like towels, linen is something you directly touch with your naked body. The sheet, pillowcase and duvet cover should be of good quality materials, as well as the pillow and duvet. Pillows should be several, different sizes and elasticity. In a good hotel, bed linen should never be "off-white" in color. Any patterns and drawings are a sure sign of a lousy hotel.

Sockets

6. Sockets are such a thing that you don’t seem to notice. You don't even think about it.

7. But if there is no outlet, life becomes unbearable, especially if you have a dozen gadgets in your luggage that require recharging. It is often difficult to find an outlet in our hotels. They are either occupied with the mini-bar and TV, or they are somewhere behind the bedside table, or - which happens most often - both at the same time. We have to deploy search activities from the threshold, move tables and arrange redevelopment of the room. Is it really incomprehensible that in our technological age a person needs at least two sockets - for a computer and a phone.

Slippers

8. A good host puts disposable slippers in the nightstand. And not just transparent thin slippers, more like shoe covers, but thick slippers with thick soles. The economical owner honestly does not put anything. The cunning owner puts reusable rubber slippers.

Soundproofing

9. When an expedition team lights up in the next room all night, no earplugs will help if the owner did not take care of soundproofing during the construction of the hotel. Even worse, when someone is torturing a girl in the next room, and you have been on the road for almost 2 months, away from your family.

Amenities (Toiletries? How would it be in Russian?)

10. In hotel bathrooms, you can find a wide variety of combinations of free shampoos, combs and cotton swabs. In bad hotels, shampoo will not even be in a bottle, but in a bag or on the wall in a large dispenser. In good hotels, all cosmetics will be from L'Occitane. In excellent - Hermes.

Shower

I would like to consider this point pointlessly, as a certain trend. What is the main task of the hotel? To make it convenient, comfortable and cozy for a person on a business trip or travel. To do this, it is enough to observe simple conditions: cleanliness, comfort and convenience. But many provincial hotels are trying to replace this with show-offs, which is why there are showers with hydromassage and the like "luxury". Moreover, such a cabin will certainly be made of cheap plastic and flow, and hot water will be supplied from the tank after half an hour of heating.

Blackout curtains

In a good hotel, in addition to the usual tulle and curtains, there will also be blackout curtains that will help you not to wake up with the first rays of the sun. It is especially true on the first day of the trip if you have changed several time zones, and your meetings are scheduled only for the evening.

Availability of air conditioning

I once lived in Morocco in a hotel in the desert, where there was no air conditioning, and on the street it was +38 during the day and +30 at night ...

Possibility to open the window for ventilation

Often the ventilation in the room turns on only after you insert the card into the card reader. If no one lived in the room before you for a couple of days or a previous guest spilled oil on the carpet while opening a jar of cod liver, then the air can be very unpleasant in taste and smell. Even the presence of air conditioning will not save you ...

Turning off the light with one switch

Once in a very nice hotel where everything was controlled from a huge touchpad, I tried to turn off all the lights in the room before going to bed. As a result, a couple of light bulbs could not be extinguished and I had to cover them with towels so that they would not shine in my eyes. It is very convenient when there is a switch next to the bed that cuts out all the light in the room at the same time.

tucked blanket under the mattress

Well, my personal hell. The first thing I do when I enter my room is check the blanket. If it’s filled, then I throw all my strength into preparing the bed for the evening, and only then do I start to unpack my suitcase.

These are the main indicators of the quality of the hotel, in my opinion.