Checking into a hotel anytime soon? Before you do, consider what things might annoy you and try to avoid them before you even get to your room. These are the five questions I always ask hotel front desk agents when I check in or even before I arrive: RELATED: How much to tip housekeeping and how to make sure they actually get it
1. Does my room have a connecting door?
My biggest pet peeve when staying in hotels, besides rude guests and people talking loud and slamming doors at all hours of the night, are rooms with connecting room doors. That is unless, of course, I’ve been upgraded to a suite and I’m fortunate to have two rooms. But when that’s not the case, I find rooms with connecting room doors to be aggravating. Seriously, I’ve had neighbors where I could hear everything … and I mean everything, from blowing their nose to you know what. You really have to be careful what you say in a hotel room with a connecting room door.
2. Is my room away from the elevator and pool?
For obvious reasons, I don’t want my room near the elevator or the pool because they’re generally the loudest. parts of a hotel. Ideally, I like to be all the way at the end of the hallway in a corner but I know that many solo female travelers often want to be near the elevator since they feel safest there. My dad also liked to be close to the elevator so he didn’t have to walk too far. Heck, sometimes I feel the same way, especially, in Las Vegas when my room key doesn’t work and I have to make the long trek back to the front desk to get it reset. RELATED: 3 Reasons To Always Get Two Hotel Room Keys
3. Is there construction going on?
Ideally, you want to find out if there’s construction going on before you book your stay. But if you forget, which I’ve done many times, it’s good to find out when you check in so you can either switch hotels or go to a section or floor where there’s not any. Hearing a high-pitched saw all day long is almost as bad as the dentist’s drill.
RELATED: 3 Ways to Get a Refund on a Non-Refundable Hotel Room
4. Is my room between floors 2 and 6?
Generally, you don’t want to stay on the ground floor of a hotel because it’s much easier for a burglar to get in and I always find those rooms to be much mustier, especially in tropical destinations. But what I didn’t know until about 20 years ago, when I heard travel expert and part-time fireman Peter Greenberg say it, is that you don’t want to stay above the sixth floor because, he says, “there are few fire departments that can effectively fight a fire above that floor.” Also, their ladders don’t go higher than that to rescue you. I’ve been in a hotel fire before, which is why I’m still cautious to this day. Here’s my experience and the safety precautions I take every time I check into a hotel.
5. Do you have my correct frequent flier/hotel points reward number in?
As someone who cherishes their frequent flier miles and hotel points, since it’s the main way I can travel like a rock star, I always ask if the hotel has my correct rewards number in their system. I don’t want to have to go chasing after them later, even though sometimes I still have to if my account doesn’t get credited for some reason. Oftentimes, booking through a third party won’t get you the points or benefits like free WiFi.
What questions do you ask when you check into a hotel? I know some people ask if the room has recently been renovated, if it’s near a booster pump to have better water pressure or if it’s an ADA-compliant room. KEEP READING: 5 Things a Hotelier Says She Would Never Do at a Hotel
NOTE: This is an updated post.
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1) wifi code 2) local restaurants 3) what time is breakfast 4) where’s the closest coffee bar 5) how are you and thank you so much for helping us settle in. Your top 5 are so weird. 111 countries and counting as I hit 75 on Friday. Cheers.
Totally with you on getting a room is far from the elevator as possible. Because there’s always those inconsiderate drunk people coming in yelling at 2:30 in the morning, and the farther away from the elevator my room is, the less likely I am to be woken up.
We found while traveling overseas and trying to stay in a non-chain hotel to simply ask to see your room before checking in. They will easily do this in Europe. You can then ask if anything else is available if you do not like the room shown to you. They try to book the worst rooms first. We swiftly backed out of a reservation in Salzburg when we found our room not as pictured online. Saved a lot of hassle by not having checked in and unloaded bags from our rental car.
We stayed in Mammoth, CA recently. We should have asked if the bedrooms had air conditioning! The living room had a portable A/C unit. The bedrooms only had ceiling fans! It was hot and uncomfortable!
Thank you for all your great recommendations!
How true!
Good one!
I guess we travel in different worlds. While travelling through Central and South America, India and Russia, we quickly learned to ask whether rooms had a double bed or single beds, is there hot water, is there a shower head and a toilet seat, light bulbs, wifi, wifi password, en suite bath facilities, etc. Even Europe and Asia can be challenging. We are really spoiled here in North America.
Great suggestions for sure.
Another frustration is a room near the ice machine.
Why have I never thought of most of these?? Just this past week in Lisbon, I stayed in a room with a connecting door and I thought I was going to have to go visit them next door in my bathroom to ask them to be quiet! I did remember to get two room keys as you suggest and sure enough, one would not work the electricity in the room. Always love your great advice! Obrigada!