Four Easy Ways to Make Hotel Stays More Pleasant

Trash cans

We’d  love for hotels to stock rooms with decent sized trash cans for a change so we won’t have to call housekeeping and ask for multiple bins or additional trash bags during our stays.
The souvenir packaging, packing materials, tickets, brochures, and odd food wrapping that end up thrown out by travelers add up and never fit into the small bins supplied. As a result, the resulting rubbish is often strewn all over the room and bathroom floors.
Our autism angle: If your kid is anything like ours who likes to collect every napkin, pamphlet, and ribbon bows then you totally understand our request for additional trash cans.

Brochures and Reading Materials

Like many fellow travelers, we enjoy reading the hotel-provided books, brochure, and papers, but we dislike bumping into the haphazardly placed ones gracing every possible surface space in the room.
Why not take a page from doctor’s offices and have a particular area for them—a side table or, even better, a wall display?
If implemented, any interested patron could easily glance at the various magazines, and accidental spills and greasy fingers would not ruin them.
And to make sure they are germ-free; laminating them would be a terrific idea that in time might also prove to be cost efficient!
Our autism angle: Our son LOVES  anything pamphlets, continuously puts his hand in his mouth and chews on multiple items, so laminated pages one can wipe clean would get our vote.

Bathroom shelves, drawers, hooks and towel racks

An ever-present yet irksome sight in hotels all over is the lack of adequate storage space.Let’s face it many bathroom counter tops are designed for beauty, not for function.
With the small area given, the average hotel countertop usually cannot accommodate the extra towels, medicines, toiletries, and sometimes even dry clothes (for stepping out of the shower) that are part of every savvy traveler’s bathroom.
As such, our question is: why do hotels have to skim costs and create such a small space, devoid of hooks or additional room?
Minimalism is cute for aesthetics, not for convenience so if the property’s bathrooms provide little counter space, then the least management can do is add a few hooks or inexpensive shelves to accommodate travelers’ needs.
Our autism angle: We travel with a copious amount of meds and items, so more storage space is a priority for us.

24-hour  availability of staple items

In today’s three-ounce-bottle-restricted world, many travelers deplete their packed supply rather quickly while others might forget the essentials altogether.
A vending machine stocked with all the basic toiletries (like deodorant, toothbrushes and paste, and over-the-counter medications) and available 24 hours a day, would come in so handy for those traveling internationally as well as domestically.
Instead of a vending machine that would allow access to the merchandise, the property can have several staple items available for purchase at the front desk with additional choices in their hotel store.
Our autism angle: With the 9/11  restrictions we run out of toothpaste, soaps and shampoos extraordinarily fast so being able to replenish supplies quickly is a useful option.

Have you encountered any  ‘issue’ with your hotel room during your stays you’d like to see changed?
Share your thoughts with us!