That’s fairly new, though. (By new, I mean 20 years old.) The old American style of not having breakfast used to be called the American plan, as distinguished from the European plan with breakfast. I’m not sure who started having breakfasts - perhaps suite hotels, but it is indeed common in those and lower end properties. Big city expensive hotels like Hiltons still don’t have it.
In America, the low end hotels have free internet. The medium ones have a small cost. The high end ones have very expensive internet.
Stayed at an upscale hotel in Minnesota that required the keycard to be inserted before using the lights or the heater.
Got damn cold during the day in winter, and took forever to warm up. Frankly I think it was counterproductive, since you’d have to run the heater full blast the rest of the night.
Cameroonian hotels often have a few pairs of plastic flip flops to wear in the shower or puttering around the room. The bathroom will include a bucket and a small cup that hooks to the bucket for flushing the toilet should it break, or for taking a “traditional shower” if that is what you prefer. The shower usually has two taps- a shower up top, and a lower tap for filling up buckets. Hot water is rare, and towels and wash clothes are generally not provided. Cash deposits are expected. Rooms are usually divided into “AC” and “fan only” rooms. Bedding is often limited to sheets.
In very low-end Indian hotels, it’s common to bring your own lock, although you can borrow one from the owner if you don’t have one. Hot water in cheap hotels is usually not a 24/6 amenity. Small hotels are usually happy to arrange for train or bus tickets for a small commission, and they can arrange for neighborhood ladies to do your laundry, etc. Often you end up eating many meals at the hotel restaurant, and it’s not uncommon to end up with one big bill at the end of a stay that covers all kinds of things.
It’s that way with every hotel in mainland China as well. And if you stay at someone’s house overnight, they will almost certainly offer a toothbrush. Chinese people just don’t travel with toothbrushes, apparently.
Chinese hotel rooms also come with combs along with the mini-soap and shampoo (which will likely come in a packet). There will always be a a water cooler, an electric water kettle, or at the very least a thermos of hot water that is refreshed daily and usually some teabags. Hotels also offer disposable cloth slippers, since Chinese people tend not to wear shoes indoors and might regard a hotel floor as dirty. They also do the keycard-for-lights thing, and you quickly learn that a business card tricks the mechanism nicely.
Chinese toilets often have the two-button system, and some hotels have squat toilets. The bathroom will always include a clothesline, usually a pull-out one over the tub. Chinese people tend to wash their undergarments and small items on a nightly basis.
Chinese hotel buffet breakfasts are a special thing, and unlike any other Chinese meal. You will find hot orange-drink and soymilk, a variety of spicy cold salads, some steamed rolls and buns, and a chef that will make you a single fried egg.
Yes that is funny but I guess the high end places assume it goes on your expense report so you don’t care what it costs. Last year I did stay at a nice place with free internet in Seattle so maybe times are changing.
Same in Australia and New Zealand. Don’t know about the star.
Some of the cheap American hotels I’ve stayed in in the US have had a Mr Coffee machine and a packet of ground coffee in the room. The nicer ones usually set out morning coffee for guests in the lobby or near the bar.
Same for me in Germany. Except it also controlled the HVAC. It was easy to leave the wife’s key in the slot when we left the room and defeat it.
I work at a moderately upscale hotel in Australia.
There’s a Bible in every room, a kettle for heating water, plus tea and coffee makings. Breakfast is not necessarily included in the rate - if you’re in our cheapest room, or have some sort of discount, then breakfast is extra. The toilets are the two-button type, but that’s standard in Australia. Wi-fi is an extra charge (20AUD for 12 hours’ worth).
That’s what I remember, too.
This thread reminds of a long-ago David Letterman “Top Ten ways to amuse yourself when visiting New York City.” One of them was, “Get a hotel room near Times Square. Take out the Gideon’s Bible, look out the window, and cross off the Ten Commandments as you see them being violated.”
Every hotel I’ve stayed in in Malaysia and Indonesia provided two bottles of bottled water each day as part of the room; The reason being that you can’t- or at least shouldn’t- drink the tap water in many places there.
As a member of a high-end chain’s loyalty program, I get free internet when I stay at a hotel in the chain. Non-members pay something outrageous. It’s just an incentive to join, really.
That’s fairly standard in hotels throughout Australia and New Zealand too.
In Iran all rooms at hotels and guest houses will have prayer rugs and turbahs (pic). And flip-flops for bathroom use.
In Russia and Central Asia most places will have some way of making tea - often a samovar.
Many Irish hotels have Gideon bibles, but it is not standard.
In Ireland, it’s standard to have a kettle with instant coffee and teabags. They also supply shower gel, shampoo, shower cap and tissues in the bathroom.
They usually supply internet access as well as TV, and a hairdryer. A good hotel will supply an iron or a trouser press, and writing paper and pen.
A large number of Irish hotels use the card system, which requires you to put the entry card in a slot to make the electrics work. The entrance light will remain on, and the heating/air conditioning will keep the room at the right temperature. Everything else turns off shortly after you remove the card, when they assume that you have left the room.
Few Irish hotel rooms seem to have a liquor and snack supply. When I stay in Denmark, every hotel seems to have them - but maybe that reflects the places I stay in - mainly Radisson/SAS.
Let me guess - a Marriott? :D…
I’m currently languishing in a hotel in Melbourne, well in the suburbs of Melbourne Australia. I tried looking around the room to try to find anything that would allow me to unequivocally know that this was an Oz hotel room. I’m not sure I really found anything.
There is: a bible (Gideon), a kettle and supplies for making tea and coffee (free), a minibar populated with ferociously overpriced drinks, similarly priced wireless internet, an ironing board and iron, TV, desk, sofa, queen sized bed. So far I could be almost anywhere. The dual flush toilet is a clue, and the large spa-bath perhaps a little curious. (These baths seem to be considered some sort of luxury touch by many medium end hotels in Oz.) There is a large ceiling fan, which is perhaps a bit unusual, and for Melbourne almost absurd. I could just about close my eyes, open them again, and convince myself that I was nearly anywhere.
Oh, I forgot about Thailand. Stayed in 3 different hotels of varying star rating and each had a cotton kimono-style dressing gown and joss sticks to smoke in the room. And exotic flowers floating on water in a dish. LOVE Thailand.
One thing I have noticed to have become almost universal in Australian hotel/motel accommodation in recent years is a sign that essentially says (on the pretext of environmental awareness and water saving) that you should hang up towels after use if you don’t think they need washing. If you want them washed (and therefore get fresh towels), toss the used ones in the bathtub.
I can’t help but think this is a marketroids way of selling less washing to the punters.
Is this common elsewhere?
Yes, I’ve seen this in a number of European (German, Dutch, Spanish) hotels. Of course they’re appealing to the guest’s ecological awareness in order to save the cost of washing, but it does make sense to save energy that’s otherwise spend unnecessarily, and who doesn’t use a towel more than one time at home?
It’s pretty common in the United States, but what exactly is your suspicion? Yes, it’s a way of saving the cost of a wash, but it’s perfectly true that reducing washing is good for the environment. Do you wash your towels daily at home? At least they’re offering a choice rather than mandating a charge for each wash.