I read “4 nice hotel touches that I wish were standard (and coming from midrange hotels, not the snooty ones)” by Rapid Travel Chai, today.  This article got me thinking. What are my “Four Nice Touches” that I think all hotels should have – no matter the class or number of stars?

My list is in no particular order:

1. Ample bed & desk adjacent power outlets / barring that, provide a power strip.  I know many people travel with their own power strips, but I haven’t started that yet. I don’t like the idea of adding a power strip to my luggage – extra weight for something that should be in the room already.
2. A washcloth.  Many of the hotels I stay at do not even include this in their hotel linen package.  I use a washcloth to wet my whiskers when I shave. I don’t shave in the shower (but if I did, I’d need a mirror in there).  I often get 2-3 bath towels and 2-3 hand towels, but no washcloths. Very frustrating.  I’ve also had a problem lately where there are no bath mats – you step out of the shower onto the tile and nearly break your neck. The extra bath towel becomes my make shift bath mat quite frequently.
3. While I have never stayed in a hotel that has Drape Clips, but like Rapid Travel Chai says “A universal law of travel physics is that curtains do not properly close”. How many times has our slumber been disturbed by an early rising sun and a craptastic curtain not properly closing?
4. Rapid Travel Chai wishes hotels would have two luggage racks available in the guestrooms. I don’t disagree, but based on several of the hotels I’ve stayed at recently, I say we need to start with just ONE luggage rack in every room. I’ve been so frustrated lately with 4 of the rooms we’ve stayed in over the past month not having ANY luggage racks. Now this could just be the rooms we stayed in being ill equipped, but that seems unlikely.