6 Hotel Check-In Annoyances

I spend a lot of time in hotels, and I’m pretty good at sizing up how the stay is going to be in the first minutes after I walk into a hotel lobby.  Just as first impressions are important in business and personal relationships, so are they important in setting the tone for a hotel stay.

Take a read and see if you agree that these items do not bode well for a good stay:

1. Lines.  All the time.  To check in, to check out, to ask a question.  If the lobby is always full of lines, you need more staff.  When I see only one or two front desk staff trying to juggle 10-15 people, it tells me that the no one really cares about my time.
2. Failure to make eye contact.  When I come up to the front desk to check in, take your eyes away from the computer screen for two seconds to say hello.  Greeting me and making me feel welcome is part of the hotel experience.  When you don’t look up, and just mumble that you want my credit card, you’re telling me that my money is important, but I’m not.  Well, my money doesn’t make the decision about where to stay!
3. Slow elevators.  It shouldn’t be that complicated to get to my room.  When I see people waiting on the elevator, but no elevator seems to appear, it again tells me that you don’t respect my time.  Even worse, is when there’s a bank of elevators, but only one seems to ever appear at the main floor.  I’m anxious to get to my room, so please make it as easy as possible.
4. Mumbling.  Didn’t anyone learn how to enunciate?!  Many hotels now have standard verbiage that is used to greet every guest.  Okay, that’s fine, but can you at least speak audibly so that I know what you’re saying.  “Hi, my nh;oi  gog n  t’ o ihln” may mean something to you, but to me it’s just gibberish.
5. People sprawled in the lobby.  I know that group bookings can be a lucrative part of a hotel’s business, but do they have to sprawl all over the lobby.  Countless times I’ve had to pick my way around students sleeping on the floor, people with bags blocked all ingress and egress, or bags stacked at the front desk because it seemed a convenient place to leave them.  I can’t stay at your hotel if I can’t get in it!
6. Trainees.  Everyone had a first day on the job.  We all had to take time to learn skills that we now take for granted.  I understand the need to train new staff members by having them work alongside your best employees.  But training at peak check in/check out periods is emphasizing training over customer service.  And there should be a time limit on how long a transaction should take.  I’m not going to get crabby with a trainee, as I really do empathize, but at some point, you need to get someone to take over and complete the transaction so you don’t have lines all over the place.

I’m sure there are others that have slipped my mind, but these are the annoyances that I see most frequently.  How about you?  Did I mess your hotel check-in pet peeve?

Photo credit: dlisabona  @flickr