Hotels

Because we spend a lot of time traveling, we also spend a lot of time in hotels. In the United States, we have stayed in all types of hotels from the most expensive to budget. In Europe, we usually rely on our travel agency to help us get the best accommodations. However, there are still times when we have to assert ourselves once we actually get to the hotel.

There are two times in Europe where we have had to stand our ground. In Amsterdam, we were given a room that reeked of marijuana. We went back to the front desk and told them that we had requested a non-smoking room. The desk clerk argued that our travel agent had booked a regular room and we had not paid for a non-smoking room; if we wanted one, it would cost us 25 Euros more. We gladly paid it. I could not have spent two days in the marijuana-scented room. Another time was in Paris where we were told that the hotel was full and we were to be transferred to another. We had spent the last hour dragging our suitcases through the Paris metro system and then walking two blocks to the hotel so we were in no mood to hear this excuse. We finally got a room and believe it was right over the kitchen because it was so warm. Also we found out that the hotel was full of American teenagers on their spring break tour of Europe.

On another trip to Paris, my room was over a bar. And of course it wasn't air conditioned so I had to keep the window open, letting in noise and mosquitoes. And staying in a room facing an alley in London during a heat wave wasn't too pleasant, either. Fortunately, the room did provide a fan.

Connecting doors and thin walls bother me. No, I don't want to hear the baby crying or the toddler whining in the next room. And I don't want to know the personal life of the couple whose bed is head to head with ours. I'm not interested in hearing someone else's television going at midnight. And why would someone be taking a two-hour bath at 2:00 a.m.?

Please make sure the rooms are visited periodically by an exterminator so ants will not feast on a guest's leftover goodies during the night. Once we even had ants get into our cat's food. I know that flies will get into the rooms when you hold open the door to bring in your suitcases, but ants and roaches don't need to come in as well.

I like hotels that will check you in early, even if the check-in time isn't until 3:00 and you have just arrived from an all-nighter over the Atlantic. And I like rooms where the Internet service is easy to connect to, the plumbing doesn't drip, and the air conditioning keeps the room at the right temperature. I don't like hotels with running toilets, spotty Internet service, and inadequate lighting. And please put in more than one very slow elevator that is large enough for a guest and his or her luggage.

I also like hotels with cheap internet pricing that don't charge your credit card until 6:00 p.m. on the day of arrival. High on my list are hotels that give you a free breakfast with enough food to call it a breakfast, and that have enough food for the guests who decide to sleep late even if the early-leaving tour group members eat more than their share. And a special hats off to the hotels who monitor the batteries in their smoke detectors.