Reasons to reject your hotel room: Noise, unsanitary conditions, more
An overpowering smell of stale urine greeted Chris Emery when he checked into a chain hotel in southwestern Virginia. But he was so tired after an all-day drive that he did what most travelers would do: Instead of rejecting his hotel room, he opened a window, hoping the smell was just temporary. It wasn’t.
“I went to the front desk and let the clerk know about the problem,” says Emery, who publishes an outdoor travel site. “Instead of immediately offering us a new room, the employee reached behind the counter and put cans of room deodorizer and Febreze on the counter. I was so shocked, I didn’t know what to say.”
Try our travel newsletter: Get the latest headlines in your inbox daily
That triggered a debate in Emery’s family that is happening more often lately. The pandemic hit the lodging industry hard, leaving many hotels in desperate need of a renovation. But when do you say “no” to a hotel room? What do you do afterward? And, is there a way to avoid a hotel with a room that you would reject?
“As we slowly start to travel again, we’re less likely to overlook hotel room inadequacies than we might have been previously,” says Carla Bevins, who teaches business communications at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.
When to turn down your room
So when should you reject your room? For Emery, a combination of foul-smelling quarters and a dismissive hotel clerk made the decision easy. He packed up his family and drove to a relative’s house.
Dangerous or inaccessible facilities. If you’re traveling abroad, you might encounter a hotel that isn’t as accessible as one you might find in the States. That happened to Mark Beales, a retired mortgage banker from Mill Creek, Washington, on a recent visit to Florence, Italy. “The room had a double bed in a very small room which required you to climb a steep set of stairs after entering the room,” he recalls. He asked for another room without stairs. The hotel obliged.
Unsanitary conditions. If the hotel room isn’t livable, find another one. Stefan Loble had to do that when he tried to check into a room at an airport hotel in Los Angeles recently. “The sheets were wet,” recalls Loble, who runs a clothing manufacturing business in New York. “Like, really wet. I could tell as soon as I laid down on top of the bed on the comforter.” Loble phoned the front desk, and it delivered a key to a new room.
Loud neighbors. That’s what happened to Mitch Krayton when he visited Las Vegas recently. “The people next door were loud,” remembers Krayton, who owns a travel agency in Denver. “They were arguing and playing music without regard to anyone else.” He called security, and the music stopped for a minute, but then continued. Krayton asked to be moved to another room.
Elvis has left the building: Some Las Vegas chapels ordered to stop Elvis weddings
What to do after you reject a room
Don’t just walk away from the hotel. If the room is unusable, let the hotel know and give it a chance to fix the problem. When Mike Sweat, a retired geologist from Lansing, Michigan, checked into a chain hotel in Cheyenne, Wyoming, he found a hairball on the floor.
“We saw it when we shut the drapes,” he recalls. “There…
Read More: Reasons to reject your hotel room: Noise, unsanitary conditions, more