Another Hotel Rant
Having returned from my trip on New Year's Day, I have had my fill of hotels for a while. It really is beyond my comprehension how crappy the business has become - even with brands that are supposed to know better.
In my two weeks of travelling, I stayed at a Hilton, a Marriott, a Raddisson, and an independent hotel. In all of them, I saw such basic lapses as torn wallpaper, missing or broken outlet covers, no base cove in the bathrooms, poor water pressure or no hot water at all - the whole gamut, in hotels that advertise themselves as "upscale"
The Radisson was a particular nightmare, but Radissons usually are. I haven't seen a more fucked up front desk since the days when I was staffing the desk at the Howard Johnson's in Medina, Minnesota. How anyone can check someone into a room that is already occupied in this day and age of computers is beyond me, but they had done it to some poor slob. (I used to do it all the time, but I was dumb, and there wasn't a computer to keep track of things. I could expound on all of the intracacies it took to keep track of guests in those days, but this is already too boring of a post)
And I know I've already gone off on this, but that is passing for "business attire" in hotels is appalling. Unbuttoned suit jackets (my personal peeve) is just the tip of the iceberg. One clerk, who called herself a manager, was wearing the most horrendous polyester stretch pants with the obligatory exposed gut, and trashy sequined top. Note to the real management: Guests do not shell out $200/night to see some tarted up slob mishandle their credit card. It does not inspire what we used to call confidence in the establishment.
And you can tell that the economy is not recovering by the amount of queens working in hotels. Most of us left with the .com boom, but when that died out, all the ex-waiters and desk clerks headed back to whence they came (I have, so far, been able to avoid returning to the hospitality convent) Homos and hotels go well together, as so many of us are snobs, but a snobby homo without proper training is just a pretentious ass. At one hotel, where I was supposedly upgraded to the "towers" floor, the too-precious-for-his-own-good "concierge" spent most of the time playing on the computer and gossiping (in the frankest sexual terms) with someone on the phone. That's all fine and good, but you don't advertise that sort of thing if you want to get a tip. No one understands discretion these days....
By and large, the hotels seem to be coasting on their former glories, eliminating nice restaurants, skimping on the training, paying crappy wages, cutting corners on the amenities, but still wanting top dollar for the rooms. While I am a sucker for a swanky downtown hotel, it really makes you wonder when people are going to get wise.
In my two weeks of travelling, I stayed at a Hilton, a Marriott, a Raddisson, and an independent hotel. In all of them, I saw such basic lapses as torn wallpaper, missing or broken outlet covers, no base cove in the bathrooms, poor water pressure or no hot water at all - the whole gamut, in hotels that advertise themselves as "upscale"
The Radisson was a particular nightmare, but Radissons usually are. I haven't seen a more fucked up front desk since the days when I was staffing the desk at the Howard Johnson's in Medina, Minnesota. How anyone can check someone into a room that is already occupied in this day and age of computers is beyond me, but they had done it to some poor slob. (I used to do it all the time, but I was dumb, and there wasn't a computer to keep track of things. I could expound on all of the intracacies it took to keep track of guests in those days, but this is already too boring of a post)
And I know I've already gone off on this, but that is passing for "business attire" in hotels is appalling. Unbuttoned suit jackets (my personal peeve) is just the tip of the iceberg. One clerk, who called herself a manager, was wearing the most horrendous polyester stretch pants with the obligatory exposed gut, and trashy sequined top. Note to the real management: Guests do not shell out $200/night to see some tarted up slob mishandle their credit card. It does not inspire what we used to call confidence in the establishment.
And you can tell that the economy is not recovering by the amount of queens working in hotels. Most of us left with the .com boom, but when that died out, all the ex-waiters and desk clerks headed back to whence they came (I have, so far, been able to avoid returning to the hospitality convent) Homos and hotels go well together, as so many of us are snobs, but a snobby homo without proper training is just a pretentious ass. At one hotel, where I was supposedly upgraded to the "towers" floor, the too-precious-for-his-own-good "concierge" spent most of the time playing on the computer and gossiping (in the frankest sexual terms) with someone on the phone. That's all fine and good, but you don't advertise that sort of thing if you want to get a tip. No one understands discretion these days....
By and large, the hotels seem to be coasting on their former glories, eliminating nice restaurants, skimping on the training, paying crappy wages, cutting corners on the amenities, but still wanting top dollar for the rooms. While I am a sucker for a swanky downtown hotel, it really makes you wonder when people are going to get wise.
posted by Catalina Vel-DuRay @ Thursday, January 05, 2006
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