The Six Maddening Mistakes Hotels Make: A Business Traveler's Complaint

After decades of traveling around the world for business, I've concluded that there really only a few simple principles that drive business travelers. Satisfying them is all its takes to make us happy customers.

• We don't want to change our lifestyle when we change our location.
• We not only like to stay connected, we insist upon connectivity.
• We can do basic math.
• We are excellent judges of value.
• Time is money.
• Style cannot take precedence over substance.
• Anything that upsets or disturbs the previous six points is tantamount to a declaration of war.

1. They trap us with mood lighting. Business travelers hate it when we check into a room to find a 40-watt bulb. Mood lighting puts us in a bad mood. We like the option of working in our room, and actually being able to read books and documents.
2. They make us drop to our knees. Repeat after me: More electrical outlets. Don't make me crawl in the dark trying to find one.
3. We KNOW how much a plastic bottle of water costs. They actually think we don't go to the supermarket, but in their zeal to drive short-term ancillary revenue, they thing we forget those minor details. What make hotels think we wouldn't be insulted by a $6 bottle of water on the credenza, when we all know we can buy a case of bottled water for about the same price these days?
4. They are counter-intuitive in other pricing. Why is it that Wi-Fi is free at the Hampton Inn and costs $10 or more at the Four Seasons or Ritz-Carlton? Come to think of it, why should it cost anything at all? More and more business travelers are voting with their wallets and either avoiding hotels that charge for Internet entirely, or bringing their own wireless cards with them. Hotels don't learn their lessons very well. These were the same hotels that charged $2.50 for local telephone calls, until cell phones wiped out that gouging practice. Wi-Fi should be free across the board, at every hotel.Not only is the pricing for Wi-Fi counterintuitive, it's more linked to a culture of raising ancillary revenue without respect for the age old comparisons between price and worth, cost and value. Some business hotels continue to charge for Internet because of long-standing existing contracts with private Wi-Fi providers. Other hotels that cater to business travelers continue to charge simply because they've always charged. in either case, it's absurd and sends the wrong message to the very travelers who pride themselves on working, and succeeding, because of adherence to reasonable budgets.Fortunately, the smarter business hotel -- and that number is growing -- are realizing that charging for Wi-Fi is a huge negative touch point for their guests. So these hotels either build the cost of Wi-Fi into their rates, or just absorb the loss, taking the calculated risk that the presence of free Internet will translate into repeat guests. I'll say it again: Charging businee travelers for WI-Fi is ultimately bad business.
5. They want to charge us for a service that someone else is already doing and that we're already paying for. Example: if you want to send a FedEx package from your hotel, the presumption is that you are tipping the bellman for taking it from you, and that you are already paying FedEx to pick it up and deliver it. So why do so many hotels sock you for a huge fee to essentially keep that package until FedEx comes and picks it up? This is absurd. Recently at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas, I called the bellman to pick up a FedEx box, which I had already pre-labeled with my account. It was ready to go. I was told the bellman couldn't perform this service, that I would have to go down to the hotel's business center myself. I walked there (about a mile) and when I arrived, there was a long line of other business travelers waiting to send their FedEx packages. i looked at a sign behind the counter, and the hotel was about to charge me a minimum $20 fee, per package, to "process" theFedEx transaction. On principle alone, I left that line, walked out to the front of the hotel, and flagged down a FedEx truck. I handed him the package.
6. They love technology at the expense of common sense. No business traveler has the time for a detailed tutorial on operating the TV remote control unit or the room thermostat. Here's an outrageous idea: how about a basic remote control unit that has ON, OFF, CHANNEL and VOLUME. and an even more off the wall idea for the thermostat: let's go back to the old Honeywell "wheel" thermostats. ON, off, and turn the dial to the temperature you want.
7. Failure to understand the previous six complaints results in me, and many others, changing hotels. The real irony here, is that these are all easy fixes.

Related:

• Best Smart Phone Apps for Business Travelers
• Wi-Fi In the Air: A Game Changer for Airlines
• Should Airlines Have Children-Only Sections?

Peter Greenberg

Peter Greenberg, CBS News' travel editor, reports regularly on a broad range of travel-related news. A multiple Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter and producer, Greenberg is the consummate insider when it comes to reporting the travel business as news.

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