That’s pretty much my take.
It’s ok to agree or disagree with the policy but if the policy is to be enforced, the repercussions have to be meaningful or else they are just another way to make a few bucks from any guests who can afford it.
I know it’s more extreme but….
I used to travel to Malaysia for business in the 90s. It’s obviously tropical weather there and unless it’s raining it’s like 90F and 90% humidity. We had actual room keys with a big plastic attachment on them and you needed to insert the plastic into a holder in order for the room’s electricity to work. It was very easy to defeat.
When we came back at the end of the day, the room would be hot and it took maybe ten to fifteen minutes for it to cool down. People would defeat the system and have the air conditioning running for the entire day so that it would be cool when they got home. It was infuriating.
Right, which is why I included both cases. If it’s, say, 98 outside, and I go in to a room that’s actually at 80, I’m going to view it as a welcome relief. Going straight from 98 to 68, I’d probably be shivering. So if that’s what the OP means, then what he did didn’t even help.
The other thing he might have meant is that the room wasn’t as cool as the setting on the thermostat. But if that’s the case, then he’s just out of luck: The air conditioner is already working as hard as it can, and telling it to work harder won’t accomplish anything.
My wife and a friend are currently vacationing in an Airbnb. The home’s owner has a locked room where they keep their stuff when the home is rented out. Presumably, it’s the things that are not offered or included in the house’s rental rate.
My wife is a pretty creative, competent, and dexterous sort. Would it be okay for her to pick the lock on that door, retrieve the Gaggenau espresso machine that hypothetically lurks within, use it during her stay, and then put it back, locking the room behind her?
If it wouldn’t be okay, then what would be a reasonable recourse for the homeowner who discovered the perfidy?
That alone merits the $250 “too smart for their own good” (anti-)prize.
Also (to the OP), is it possible that you’re simply developing a reputation among the hoteliers?
Well damn. OP should be banned for life from the properties. He’s a shitty guest and not worth the trouble.
What kills me are the hotels that use the key card for the same purpose - and then the front desk clerk asks me if I want an extra key to keep the AC on all day.
If I were the owner/corporate, the lesson it would teach me would be to ban that customer for life. They’ll cost you more in hassle than they’ll ever pay you in hotel bills.
– were you staying in a hotel with “paper-thin walls” because it was cheaper than the ones with soundproofing? That’s a “get what you pay for” issue. Bring earmuffs or earplugs or a white noise generator.
@Chronos and others have already commented on this, but how does the outside temperature affect how comfortable 68 degrees feels?
For me, temp is relative. We keep our summer thermostat at 77. When it’s 90 out that’s positively cool to me. I was feeling cold at a friend’s place yesterday and he was at 75. In the fall or winter, these temps would be positively tropical. We keep winter thermostat at 66.
Now, my own experience should run counter to the OP’s point, though, as that much of a temp difference would be extreme and 68 would be more than cold enough. But it shows the subjectiveness of it all.
If anything, I think it’s the other way around. If it’s 98 outside, I’d definitely be comfortable with 68 or even 70 inside although my preference is closer to 65.
I’d be freezing at 68 degrees in a hotel room.
As previously mentioned, an inexpensive white noise machine (aided by earplugs if necessary) should drown out most casual noise from adjoining rooms, apart from idiots playing music/TV full blast or screaming kids running up and down the corridors. The latter types of noise won’t be drowned out by constantly running the AC.
On the bright side, $250 is probably less than a typical day’s gambling losses for heavy players at Las Vegas casinos.
If the outside is very hot, the walls will be hotter and will be radiating more heat. Think of heat like the brightness of a lightbulb. When it’s very hot outside, the walls will be “brighter” than if it’s cool outside. The hot walls are adding heat into your body quicker than the 68 degree air can pull it out. Air isn’t really the best heat transfer medium. So to be more comfortable, lowering the air temperature even more can help pull the heat out of you quicker. If the walls are well insulated or not facing the sun, this isn’t as much of a problem. So when checking into a hotel in a hot location, ask for a room on the northern side. It will get less direct sun on the north and will not radiate as much heat into the room itself.
You seem like a really pleasant guest.
This tangentially reminds me of the many miscreants arrested and fined for charging their mobile phones in train stations:
It looks like they were both arrested, which is ridiculous, but not charged (heh) with a crime let alone fined.
But hotels have no power to levy fines to penalize people for breaking rules. Only the state has that power.
This is (seemingly) liquidated damages, which are to compensate the victim, so they have to be at least in the ballpark of realistic.
This is your fault for staying in such a high class hotel. Next time look for a roadside motel advertising “Color TV!” which has an old crone chain-smoking Dosals and nipping from a 40 of Old English ‘800’ at the desk. You can turn that chained-to-the-radiator window AC as high as it will go without any fees, no ‘snitching ass housekeeper’ to bother you, and I guarantee the ‘brown noise’ that it makes will mask anything short of gunfire in the next room as well as aiding you with your “pooters”.
You’re welcome.
Stranger
- Kaffee: Corporal, would you turn to the page in this book that says where the mess hall is, please?
- Cpl. Barnes: Well, Lt. Kaffee, that’s not in the book, sir.
- Kaffee: You mean to say in all your time at Gitmo, you’ve never had a meal?
- Cpl. Barnes: No, sir. Three squares a day, sir.
- Kaffee: I don’t understand. How did you know where the mess hall was if it’s not in this book?
- Cpl. Barnes: Well, I guess I just followed the crowd at chow time, sir.
- Kaffee: No more questions.