There are times when I like to really splurge and stay at a super expensive hotel.  When I do so, I have very high standards and almost universally those standards are met and my expectations are exceeded.  For example, when we stayed at the Four Seasons at the bellman offered to iron my pants.  I declined, but it was nice of him to offer.  There are other times when I really just need a place to sleep, so splurging isn’t appropriate, but at any hotel, especially a large national chain of higher-than-budget level hotels, I expect a certain level of service and basic accommodations.  My experience this past weekened wasn’t a terrible one, but it did remind me of several things that irk me about staying in a hotel and caused me to mentally prepare this list on the way home yesterday.

• Bedding that is appropriate to the climate of the city or region in which the hotel is located — There is never any reason to have a down comforter in Houston, Texas.  I understand that the down comforter is a symbol of luxury to many and I’m sure that it is cheaper for them to purchase bedding in bulk rather than cater to specific regions, but couldn’t they at least have sensible bedding in places like Florida, Texas, and other somewhat tropical locations?  The low temperature in Houston on Saturday night was 61 degrees with about 85% humidity.  Because of the humidity, there was no way to get the room cool enough to warrant using a down comforter, but at the same time the tissue paper thin sheet provided too little coverage.  We have a coverlet on our bed at home, along with 600 thread count sheets and it’s perfect for almost any weather we would experience.  I’m all about snuggling up under a down comforter on those chilly nights in San Francisco, but in Houston it’s just ridiculous.
• Lack of night lights in the bathroom — I’ve stayed at some higher end places that did and it was a great touch.  It’s sometimes hard to find the bathroom for those middle of the night necessities when you’re in an unfamilar room with strange furnishings, so a night light provides just enough light to show you the way.  The only other alternative in most rooms is to leave the bathroom light on all night.  This isn’t a problem in rooms where you can dim the lights in the bathroom or where the door closes properly, but it is a huge problem in a room with blinding flourescent lights in the bathroom and a door that will not close.  Night lights are cheap and make guests happy.  Check into it.
• Internet access that you have to pay $10 a day to access — Any hotel that purports to cater to business travelers should provide free internet access in the rooms, preferrably wireless.  It cannot be that expensive for a hotel to provide this service because every little dinky roadside motel we passed on the way to Houston advertised “free wifi”. 
• Valet parking that costs $25 a night — Houston isn’t Manhattan or Washington, DC, or even San Francisco.  There is ample parking in most parts of the city and space is not at a premium, even in the downtown or shopping districts.  I understand charging for parking and understand that valet is an extra service that requires staffing and such, but if you charge so much for that service that no one uses it, then it becomes a waste to pay those people.  We opted to park ourselves and noted as we drove through the garage that all of the spaces reserved for valet parking were empty, so I guess other guests also found this a bit ridiculous.