What You Need to Know Before Booking a Hotel Room

The hotel experience is supposed to be a positive one. Usually, I leave a hotel room feeling quite pleased with my stay--other than the expense it costs me to overnight there. But on my recent vacation, two out of three hotel rooms I stayed in were less than a positive experience. In fact, my first night was one for the books. Here are some of the gripes I had. Maybe you've rented a hotel room with similar experiences.

A somewhat outdated décor, I can forgive. But this room had peeling wallpaper and very outdated furnishings. The price of the room and the national name on the front of the hotel didn't match my expectations. However, because of the shuttle it provided to and from the airport and the opportunity to park the car for free for a week, the room rated a night's stay.

Lighting in the room was interesting. The switch at the door turned interior lamps on and off--but all of them together. There was no way to turn just one off or on--other than to unscrew a bulb. And to watch television, you either had too many lights lit or you sat in the dark.

That night, before going to bed, I decided to wash up. Out of the faucet came steaming hot water--way too hot for safety in a hotel room. I dared not think what could happen to a small child with water that hot.

With my vacation happening in July, I expected the room's air conditioner to work. It did. But it made a loud racket every time the condenser turned on--which woke me continuously all night long.

The bed was perhaps the hardest mattress I've ever slept on. My pillow was flat, only an inch or so in depth. Piling one pillow on top of the other, I managed to create a thickness that passed as a pillow.

Every time the hotel guest in the room above me flushed the toilet, it sounded like ocean waves rushing through the walls. Obviously, there was little or no insulation in the walls. That was confirmed multiple times during the night--every time a hotel guest got ice from the ice machine located in the hallway across from my room.

Fitted sheets are nice on a bed, but flat ones will do when they're large enough to tuck in underneath the mattress. Needless to say, my sheets were flat sheets, and the bottom one was too small to stay tucked in. By morning, I was literally sleeping against a mattress.

But the worst part about the hotel room was what happened in the middle of the night. The city garbage truck showed up at 3:00 a.m. and proceeded to dump the containers located not far from my hotel window. It must have been during a time when the air-conditioner was taking a break from it's normally high volume, because the event woke me entirely. After that, I figured quality sleep could wait until I reached my next destination.

After checking out, I spoke with four other guests in the lobby--one who said she enjoyed her stay very much, a second who complained about a wobbly toilet seat, a third who complained about the lack of handrails for a person with disabilities, and forth who complained of spiders and a lack of restaurants within walking distance.

The main difference between hotel rooms and reviews had to be the location of the rooms. The guest in the upstairs room seemed happy with her stay and would have rated her room highly. The others of us would not have recommended the hotel.

This vacation, I've learned a few things about hotel rooms and getting quality sleep: ask for a room away from stairways, elevators, lobbies, fitness rooms, vending machines, ice machines, garbage containers, truck parking, highways, exits, and consider an upstairs room when possible.