Earlier this week, a friend of mine posted a link to an article the Points Guy wrote about things he’d like to see in more hotel rooms.  It’s a good start, but I have a few additional requests.

Electrical outlets
The Points Guy asks for more electrical outlets in the room, citing the increase in personal electronic gadgets all of us carry.  When I travel for work, I have a laptop, at least one Kindle, and my mobile phone with me.  I don’t mind having them scattered around the room charging, but I would like hotels to leave me at least one outlet free near the nightstand.  I use the alarm clock function on my phone to wake me in the morning.  Wakeup calls from the hotel are unreliable, and the alarm clock in the room requires too much effort.  Who has time to fuss with a foreign alarm clock trying to figure out how to correct the time, set the alarm, and find an appropriate radio station?  Definitely not me, and starting the day with the klaxon on the alarm ensures that I will be crabbier than usual for the rest of the morning.

No rainfall showerhead
If I’m having a leisurely morning when I don’t have to be anywhere and have all the time in the world to rinse shampoo and conditioner out of my hair, I don’t mind a rainfall showerhead.  I never have leisurely mornings, though, because I like to sleep, and I sleep until the last possible second before I have to zoom into the shower and start my day.  I have encountered rainfall showerheads so useless at rinsing shampoo out of my hair that I have shown up for internal meetings with wet hair.  I don’t understand who walked outside when it was sprinkling and thought, “Hey, I know – I’m going to try to recreate this useless amount of water in my bathroom!”  It’s only when there’s an option to turn the rainfall into a thunderstorm that I’m ok with them.  Otherwise, I write the entire hotel chain off (I’m looking at you, Kimpton).

Glass shower stalls/insufficient shower curtains
At some point in the last ten years, someone decided that a glass shower stall that didn’t close all the way looked cool.  I agree that it does, but I wish whoever designed it had not only tested whether water coming out of the showerhead would escape but also tested whether water hitting a person washing herself would ricochet onto the bathroom floor.  I hate stepping out of the shower into a puddle of water, and I can’t imagine it’s fun for housekeeping to clean up the sopping wet bath sheets that it takes to dry the puddles.  The corollary to this for bathtub/shower combos is the shower curtain that got hung too high or doesn’t stretch the length of the tub.  Both situations perplex me because they both seem so easy to prevent and fix.

1875 watt hair dryer
I know that most business travelers are men, and women tend to have longer hair that requires more drying.  Since most hotels put a hairdryer in the room anyway, why can’t it be one that has some oomph?  Sure, I could cut my hair, but I like it long, and it takes less time to style.  Also, it’s not even like I’m drying all of it – I only dry the roots so the hairspray I use to keep my weird, wispy bangs out of my eyes and my cowlick lying flat will stick.

Normal depth sink
This is the sink that I encountered earlier this week. 
Yes, it’s unusual and interesting to look at, but there is so little distance between the faucet and the sink that when I washed my hands, I had to rinse them one at a time.  Some times in a shallow sink like this, the faucet will be too far away, and then you have to be careful to turn the water on only a little because too much pressure will cause the water to bounce out of the sink.  Why do bathroom designers do this?  Have they never used the equipment in a bathroom?

Towel bars/hooks
My favorite hotel chain, the W, is the worst offender in this category.  I guess I get that towel bars and hooks are not always aesthetically pleasing, but do we value form over function to the point that we’d rather have used towels lying on all the flat surfaces in the bathroom?  What do bathroom designers have against dry towels?

That’s my wishlist.  I might be a crackpot, but I have good reasons for it.  If you’ve got some crackpot notions about what hotels should be providing, please hit me in the comments.  (Also, apologies that I’m a day late – I’ve gotten sucked into Person of Interest, and I couldn’t get myself free.)