What annoys you the most about your hotel? Survey says …

Uncomfortable beds, says a new survey by D.K. Shifflet & Associates. But that’s not the real story. Three out of the top five annoyances had to do with extra charges — fees that properties could easily eliminate.

If they wanted to.

Coming in a close second is “charging for Internet access” followed by “hidden fees at checkout” and “charging for parking.”

The results of this study are based on a national online survey of 523 guests who stayed in a hotel in the past three months. Respondents were asked to rate their annoyance with each event using a five point scale: (5) extremely annoying, (4) very annoying, (3) somewhat annoying, (2) slightly annoying, (1) not annoying.

Chris Klauda, DKSA’s vice president of lodging, said hoteliers should pay attention to the results.

Hotel owners should carefully consider the impact a decision to charge for extras might have on guest retention. Following the policy started by airlines of charging for additional services is a risky proposition.

Additional fees could result in lost revenue as guests seek out “no additional fee” hotels for future stays. Hoteliers might consider wrapping all fees into the room rate and making an extra effort to promote the value of services included.

Truer words were never spoken.

  • http://www.journeyofatravelwriter.com Adam

    I actively look for a hotel without any extra charges when traveling, particularly internet. We all know how much wireless costs, and charging anything, much less $10+/day like some hotels do is just highway robbery that irks me like nothing else. It’s the same as charging us when we turn on the television and watch cable. No difference whatsoever. I have and will never understand the idea of charging for extras. It does nothing but infuriate people, and it could all be so easily avoidable by just raising prices by a few bucks a night without anyone noticing. So simple. It’s like the people making decisions are actively trying to piss their customers off. Baffling to me and most others I’m sure.

  • http://www.mshare.net/blog Nate Bagley

    The hospitality industry needs to be cautious. It would be disastrous of them to follow the lead of the airline industry (making customers pay for bags), and make what should be the norm appear to be special treatment.

    It’s amazing what being treated well can do to establish die-hard fans for a hotel.

  • Sean

    Charging for parking is probably tops of my list. I can live with out internet on leisure travel (business travel is a must and I’ll include that cost before booking a hotel to determine who is the cheapest), and if I really have to have internet access, I’ve got a smart phone. But charging for parking . . . unless it’s a really small town, all inclusive resort where I won’t leave or has a great public transportation system, am i just suppose to walk everywhere? Depending on where you go, it becomes a real challenge to figure out what is the most economical, renting a car with an additional $20 per day parking or figuring out how much shuttles to and from the airport and local travel will cost. Just not right in my opinion.

  • The Good Doctor

    I think Southwest Airlines has heard the message loud and clear.

  • Christine

    @Sean – are you the same Sean who agreed with me about the Continental/United merger and not wanting to fly Southwest? If so, we think very much alike. When I read this article, the first thing that jumped at me is how much I hate paying for parking! It’s always some absurd fee like $40+ a night in big cities. I can see charging a lot for parking in a major city, but not for hotel guests! I’m already shelling out a couple hundred dollars for the room, at least you can throw in the parking. I always try to book a package that includes parking so I can trick myself into thinking I’m not paying for it.

  • sk

    1) Charging for Internet.

    2) Pretending to be a Green Hotel (posting signage about re-using towels, etc.), but taking towels off the rack everyday and leaving lights and tv on after housekeeping. I travel 200+ nights a year and have found most hotels take towels left on the rack despite signage to the contrary.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    In regards to paying for parking, I don’t like it but I can understand these hotels charge for parking. Typically, hotels near the airport and hotels in the downtown area will charge for parking.

    In the case of the airport hotels, if they don’t charge for parking, travelers will park in the hotel parking lot\garage\etc. taking up parking spaces that are for the paying guests of the hotel.

    In the case of downtown hotels, it is all about real estate and economics. Parking spaces are limited; therefore, paid parking is at a premium. It is common that the parking garage is not owned and/or operated by the hotel. It is common that the parking garage has parking for shoppers and workers at the nearby office buildings. I stay at a hotel in YVR that the parking garage is for the guests of three hotels (the hotels are connected to the above ground garage) and the customers of the shopping center.

    Years ago, I used to rent cars all of the time when I was staying at a hotel in the downtown area while attending a convention. The rental rates were low and the parking costs were low so I would have parked my car in the hotel parking garage for the entire length of my stay. Now, I typically take a taxi.

    To increase the room rate so that parking is included will be unfair for the guests that uses public transportations, have transportation provided locally (i.e. the local sales rep pick you every day), etc.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    Generally speaking, it is the high-end hotels (i.e. Marriott, Hilton, Omni, Hyatt, Omni, etc.) that charges for Internet services. Hotels like the Holiday Inn Express, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, SpringHill Suites by Marriott, Courtyard by Marriott, etc. do not charge for Internet access; therefore, you can stay in these hotels instead of staying at a hotel that charges for Internet.

    Since there are several hotels that do not charge for a high-speed Internet connection and none of the hotels that charges for Internet service put a gun to your head to force you to stay at their property; I don’t see why this was one of the top five annoyances since this annoyance is avoidable. If the hotel charges for Internet, don’t stay there…they will get the message.

    One solution is to ask the hotel to waive the fee for Internet service. Earlier this month, I stayed at a Hilton and there were a cost for the Internet service. I asked if the cost could be waived since I will become a Gold VIP HHonor member after that stay and they waived the cost.

    Another solution is to become an elite frequent quest of a hotel frequent guest program. A Platinum Marriott Rewards member receives free Internet at the Marriotts. HHonor Gold VIP and Diamond VIP members receive free Internet service. Just become a member of the Omni frequent quest program (no elite status required) and a member will receive free Internet service.

  • http://noaddedsalt.blogspot.com Elisa

    I can cope with a reasonable fee for internet access. What really gets to me is when a hotel makes it prohibitively expensive and far above what it costs them.

    I once went for a weekend getaway near my home town and found a good rate for my family to stay, paying around $150 for a spa suite. Knowing that their internet access was horribly expensive, I paid for a dial-up account with my ISP before I arrived so that I could take advantage of the hotel’s published, 30 cent local call costs, and use my laptop’s dial-up modem.

    Instead, I found to my disgust that the hotel charged all dial-up access numbers at $2 per minute. There was no reason for the per-minute charges other than to force people to buy their horridly expensive wi-fi.

    They obviously thought it was a good way to make a few extra dollars off me. In reality they cheated themselves out of many hundreds of dollars, because I tell my friends not to stay there, and I’ll never go back. Silly really, when the suite was otherwise quite lovely.

  • Steve Surjaputra

    Granted, the large hotels have to pay for the land to put up a parking lot, but how come the budget hotels don’t have to (Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn, Motel 6 )? Does the city give them a break? I would prefer that the big boys include it in their rate.

  • Sean

    @ Christine – Yep, same Sean, great minds think alike :)
    @sk – I have seen the exact same thing, I’ve tried to re-use towels and 9 out of 10 times they take them, however, I have noticed that it is less likely when the hotel is extremely busy, they will tend to leave the towels on the rack in that case, I assume to save the time/money of doing an extra load. When they only have enough towels to do half load, they might as well grab additional to get a full load.

  • Carver

    @Arizona

    Excellent analysis regarding parking. I would hate for room rates to rise because of parking. When I travel I generally rent a car, however, in certain places, DC, NY, and all of Europe, I don’t have a car.

    @Steve

    Its not true that budget hotels don’t charge for parking. Regardless of the hotel brand, if it’s located where land is at a premium it will charge for parking. If its located where land is plentiful and cheap, then it won’t charge for parking.

  • DesrtDrmr

    We used to stay at the “Big Boys” for both business and pleasure travel, but these days, we stay at Hampton, Residence Inn, Spring Hill Suites, Doubletree and others……….still get Big Boy points, don’t have to pay for internet, parking or, usually, a quick breakfast. Even if the rates are the same, the value is much better. For some reason, the beds are more comfortable as well.

  • Mark

    I recently stayed at the Doubletree in Austin, Texas, and one night I was charged for parking even though the parking lot was full. I did ask for parking, but by the time I returned to the hotel from dinner that night, the lot was full. The hotel refused to refund my money because I was “paying for access.”

  • Leslie

    @DesrtDrmr
    I totally agree with you! We travel with my husband’s Marriott points and we’ve felt that we received the best value for our points at a Couryard by Marriott vs. a regular Marriott or a JW. All that is different, really, is that the JW sometimes has nicer room decor and they charge you with more excessive fees that the Courtyard. And I also agree that the beds are WAY more comfortable at the Courtyard!

  • Steve

    I’m really surprised that charging for internet access ranked slightly above hidden fees added at checkout. While I’m not thrilled with properties that charge for internet access (particularly because of the irony that more expensive properties tend to, while cheaper places tend to include it in the room rate), at least it’s a clear fee that you can avoid if you don’t want to connect to the internet.

    My number one complaint is “resort fees.” If it’s mandatory and I can’t avoid it, regardless of whether or not I use the services it supposedly pays for, it should be part of the room rate.

    My number two complaint is apathetic/incompetent hotel employees. I occasionally ask for a late checkout, am told I can have it, and then at least 50% of the time get a phone call from the front desk at checkout time reminding me that it’s time to leave. I’ve also had housekeepers knocking on my door at 9am the day I’m planning to check out – you can’t look it up and see that I’m leaving in three hours and you can clean the room then? Seriously?

  • Carver

    @Mark

    You got screwed. I’d be so pissed I’d make sure that everyone and their third cousin knew about the unethical, money-grabbing mentality of that hotel

  • Ed Kummel

    A bunch of years ago, I was talking to an acquaintance who was “getting into” the burgeoning cellular phone business. I made a remark that his BBB rating was rather low and that he was getting a bunch of complaints from his customers.
    His reply was, there are *SO* many people out there purchasing phones, he doesn’t really worry about customer service because his phone rings so many times, he doesn’t really have the time to worry about the one who complains, or the dozen or the hundred…not when he’s getting thousands of new customers an hour! He said even if he pisses off everybody who he sells to, he’s still getting more business than he can handle!
    While somewhat callous, I could see his logic. His new business was so great, he didn’t need repeat business because there were thousands of new cellphone users coming online every hour with his business!
    This attitude is what I’m seeing with the travel industry…Hotels and airplanes…they don’t care how many of their customers they upset, because there are many more customers waiting in line to do business with them!

  • Bob

    I hate the stinky odor hiding spray the housekeepers use after they clean a room. Phew.

  • Arizona Road Warrior

    @ Steve – “My number two complaint is apathetic/incompetent hotel employees. I occasionally ask for a late checkout, am told I can have it, and then at least 50% of the time get a phone call from the front desk at checkout time reminding me that it’s time to leave. I’ve also had housekeepers knocking on my door at 9am the day I’m planning to check out – you can’t look it up and see that I’m leaving in three hours and you can clean the room then? Seriously?”
    - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - — – - – - – - – —
    Know what you mean…last month, I called the front desk and requested a late checkout (2:00 PM) at 7:30 AM. I told the front desk employee to contact housekeeping to inform that I will be checking out of my room at 2:00 PM. I mentioned that I am working on a proposal and can’t be interrupted by phone calls or knocking on the door. Housekeeping called me every hour and knocked on the door every hour from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM.

  • GSA

    @ Steve – the knocking is only because sooo many people dont come to the desk to checkout and the housekeepers need to start cleaning somewhere.
    @ Arizona – please use your privacy sign.

    for everyone, i work at a very small courtyard, but there is a very big language barrier between the front desk and the housekeepers, so when you ask for a late checkout we are acknowledging it, but the housekeepers only recognize a few things 1. who is checking out and 2. do not disturb signs

    And yes our Courtyard beds are VERY comfortable, and the wi-fi and parking are free and yet every day people complain that breakfast is not included (no matter what your elite member level is!!)

  • Mike

    Actually, #1 for me is charging for things I didn’t use. Favorites include minibar charges that show up after checkout… for things I didn’t use, movies that were watched before I checked in, the call to the internet support desk 800# I was told to call when the internet that I paid for didn’t work, and a fee for use of the “complementary airport shuttle” I once had to pay. I don’t like the usual fees, but if they’re fairly stated in advance and I pick that property anyway, I can’t complain.

  • Lisa

    This is a petty thing, but I hate it when hotels put bottles of water in your room with a hefty price tag. Why not go the extra mile and put a bottle or two of complementary water in the room? That would actually ADD value to your guests and encourage loyalty. The $5 price tag on a 50-cent bottle of water (when you buy large quantities) is ridiculous.

    I am Platinum at Hilton and Silver at Marriott. At least the Hilton chains offer complementary water to the “elite status” folks. THANK YOU FOR THAT small, but very welcome favor. I can’t overemphasize how nice it is to get to a room late at night after a long day of business travel and at least know you’ve got a couple of bottles of water (and sometimes a snack) waiting for you to use that night or the next day.

  • Lisa

    Two more suggestions to hotels:

    1. Amenities: Get rid of the shower caps that no one uses and ADD tiny tubes of toothpaste.

    2. Add a complementary “disinfectant wipe” in a pkg for your guests. We all know you don’t wipe down light switches, the remote control, bathroom doorknobs, etc. between guests. It’d be nice if I didn’t have to dig for my own stash of wipes when I enter the room.

  • Carver

    @GSA

    The DND sign only works until noon. Afterwards its hit and miss. This Sunday, I was at a full service Marriott. I had requested a late checkout (4pm) the day before and had the DND sign on my door. At 1pm, BANG BANG BANG. Housekeeping hadn’t gotten the message so they thought I had checked out and forgotten the sign on the door.

    Yes, the courtyard beds are very comfortable, the full service beds are better.

    As a Marriott platinum, let me tell you why we complain. Your competitor, the Hilton Garden Inn, gives free breakfast to all gold and diamond members, every day, as well as all of the other amenities you listed. Also, on the weekends, the full service hotels and the Courtyards cost roughly the same. If you have an elite offer, the full service marriotts are much cheaper, and many give breakfast on the weekends.

    And parking is not necessarily free at a Courtyard. It all depends on where the Courtyard is located. The Courtyard in Pasadena charges for parking.

    But, overall, Courtyards are pretty awesome.

  • Annapolis

    Actually, my biggest pet peeve isn’t listed here at all. My biggest pet peeve, and one that I regularly run up against, is housekeepers barging in on me when I’m in the room. Even if I yell out in shock at someone entering my room when I’m sleeping or showering or changing, they just walk right in. Once, in a London hotel, I had set the chain latch closed before getting in the shower. The housekeeper tried to open the door, and being thwarted by the chain latch, started hollering at me to come and open it for her. She surely must have heard the shower running, but in her rage at not being able to clean the room RIGHT NOW she started throwing herself against the door, trying with all her might to break the chain off! The whole thing was so absurd that I thought surely it could never happen again… but it has, do-no-disturb signs notwithstanding. It’s really awful to be frightfully awakened by a stranger barging into your room when you meant to be taking advantage of a rare opportunity to sleep in.

    Why are they so intent on cleaning the room anyway? I don’t really need the room cleaned at all during a two or three night’s stay. A related pet peeve is how doggedly housekeeping pursues me to let them in if I’ve left the do not disturb sign up all day. They’ll accost me in the hall, leave messages under the door, call the room repeatedly – what part of “do not disturb” do they not understand?

  • expatinasia

    Excessive charges for internet access is very upsetting. Your website has mentioned it more than once: expensive hotels charge more than inexpensive properties. Paying $250 for one night is one thing. Paying another $25 for internet access is an outrage. My last hotel stay was at a significantly more modest hotel, about $25/night (thanks Priceline!), and the internet charge was $5/per stay (not per night) – and they waived the charge without me asking.

  • Mona

    May I suggest Drury Inn “where the extras aren’t extra” – free parking, free breakfast, free wireless internet, free phone calls (local and long distance), free evening food and beverages, and probably more things that I can’t think of. I’ve even left my car there while I’ve gone out of town – only had to stay one night before or after my trip to park free while I was gone and on a 10-day trip that was cheaper than airport parking. They’re not all over the country – wish they were! – but there’s one close to the airports I use the most, Houston and Dallas, and I’ve never been surprised or disappointed. And during slow times I’ve even been upgraded to a suite at no extra charge. It’s one of the few places left that customer service and satisfaction are still priorities.

  • WRC7Titleist

    I too am disturbed by Housekeeping in many of the hotels I stay in .They are on a # of rooms cleaned commission ,us customers stand in the way of the 99% central american born
    staff of these establishments,chasing that $10 bones per room…
    I read of instances where at one 5 star hotel brand, the maid staff was not to give eye contact,or speak to customers unless spoken too.
    They were not to be heard making noise prior to 12 noon,and they were never under any circumstances permitted to knock on doors.You get what you pay for….At around $350+ per night…
    Just now,as I am typing this,the maid at this clarion hotel used the most common irritant that all house keepers utilize,the ”key knock”!
    It is the aggressive crashing of a key against a door,
    as opposed to the knuckles.I do nothing.If they do enter by force to simply clean,laws have been broken.
    It is 10 am rt now,my checkout is at 1:00 ,but they knock 3 hours early,they will bang your room doors with sweepers at 9 am.They will call your room and hang up when you answer.
    However, when they do clean,I always leave a few bucks,with a thank you note….I do not want my tooth brush swept thru the toilet bowl,you know?
    Also,since most of them are illegals,they do not,will not ,have zero desire to speak english….
    I hate them.I have only met 1 housekeeper whom I genuinely
    respected,and liked…But, that was when I live in a Bestwestern for 1 year.
    As for hidden charges,I get them all back at check out, after I pay them at check in,No not the deposits…The parking,web,safe fee…I get it ALL BACK!
    C’mon people use your brains.I assure you that in spite of my college EDU,yall are smarter than me…So think! Hmmm…