I’ve stayed in hundreds of hotel rooms, sometimes dead-tired and wanting precious sleep. Before I go to sleep, I always try to close the curtains such that the sunlight won’t wake me in the morning. However, no matter how tight I close them, some sunlight peeks through. In many cases, it’s as if the curtains are purposely just an inch short. Since natural light is known to awaken people, could this be intentional? I’m sure hotels don’t want to be in the business of waking customers that have slept in past their checkout time. In any case, it’s annoying and always reminds me of the excellent Norwegian film Insomnia.
Some are like that, but not all. I’ve certainly slept quite late on bright sunny days because the blackout curtains effectively blocked all outside light. Higher end hotels, especially that cater to international traveler who are dealing with jet lag, do a good job of making the curtains effective.
I’ve also slept in hundreds of hotel rooms, and share your frustration. I usually end up moving a chair and/or other piece of available furniture up against the drapes to press them closed, or closer to the wall.
I don’t think they do it on purpose, but the effect ends up being the same. 
That’s what I do too.
I travel with a sleep mask. Works great!
I find the tempur pedic brand is very comfortable, washable, and is still in good shape after years of use.
I think it’s just cost-cutting. Take 10 squ ft of material out of several hundred curtains and the savings would be significant.
I slept in just fine this morning in a hotel room that has curtains that block most of the light. It was a Best Western, so not a particularly fancy motel. But really, unless you have abnormally long drapes at home, or some sort of very good window blind behind the drapes, you don’t get complete light blockage, either. Indeed, most hotels are far better at light blocking than my house is.
When I was travelling more for business I used to travel with a couple of large binder clips and used them to clip the blinds together. A couple of well placed shoes on the outside corners kept the edges against the wall.
My pet peeve was pulling the blinds closed in the middle to find they didn’t cover the edges of the window. :eek:
There’s some mystery movie, with a remake with Al Pacino, set in the deep North and the near 23-hour sunlight through the curtains becomes a fact and symbol of his misery (and dread, which I hope none of the posters has experienced).
I travel a lot and use the clothes hanger with pinch clips (all hotels have them in the closet) to pinch together the curtains. Works great every time .
Try it next time.
This is picture for what I am talking about
Insomnia.
There is also cost savings, in that by the curtain not touching and rubbing along the bottom of the window frame, it reduces the wear & tear on the curtain. Otherwise the curtain becomes tattered & frayed on the bottom, and needs to be replaced more often.
Also, a little gap at the bottom allows the cleaner to just run a duster along the window sill, thus being faster in cleaning the room.
Most questions of why a business does it that way? can be answered by looking at increases in income or reductions in expenses.
I referenced the original Norwegian version in the OP, mainly because it was far superior to the Pacino remake.
And excellent idea from am77494 on using the hanger clips. I’ll be using that forever.
:smack:
I hate it when posters reveal their shallow involvement that way.
There are some useful suggestions in this thread!
As it happens I stayed in a Boston hotel last night, and was reminded of something else I sometimes have to do-I took a towel and put it up against the bottom of the external door, because the damn hotel feels the need to leave enough space to slide my receipt under the door, and in this case the hallway lights were really bright.
On the other hand, I’m grateful that most hotels now have the alarm clock where you can click the snooze button and it will dial down the display light.
My pet peeve in hotels is light sources within the room itself - which is made worse by blackout curtains. That flashing red light in the smoke alarm, the LCD clock display built into the TV, flickering green and orange LEDs in ethernet ports… they all seem amplified in an otherwise pitch black room.
/Grump