Selecting Hotel Rooms

By Author: Steve Robinson
Total Articles: 468
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While cheap travel options, including cheap airplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and discount travel packages often are key factors in being able to afford a trip, not all rooms in a hotel should be viewed as equal.

Hotel rooms right next to a noisy ice machine or a room on a floor where members of a high school band practice through the night can make for a sleepless stay.

The following are rooms in a hotel that travelers should avoid:

• Rooms near an indoor pool, particularly when those rooms surround an internal atrium. The permeating aroma of chlorine in such rooms can be overpowering.

• Rooms close to an elevator. The noise from an elevator can be constant and frustrating as can guest traffic and room service delivery coming from an elevator.

• Rooms on the second floor or the floor just below the top floor of a hotel can be particularly noisy if there are public or event rooms located immediately below or above your room. Such rooms often have to endure late night parties.

• Smoking rooms, unless you are a smoker. Also rooms in a hotel that recently were converted ...
... to nonsmoking often have lingering smoke that permeates every fabric and is tough to eradicate. If you end up in such a room and an alternate room is unavailable, request an air cleaner unit be place in your room.

• Hotels that allow pets often have rooms filled with pet dander and pet accidents, leaving guests covered with pet hair.

• Ask before making a reservation if there will be any conferences or conventions taking place during your visit. Such groups often overwhelm a hotel’s facilities and reduce the quality and level of service for other guests.

• Request rooms on higher floors. Upper floors of a hotel are often reserved for individual guests or hotel frequent stay guests and are often quieter. When possible it is desirable to have a room farthest from street noise, late night bars, restaurant activity, and rooms with three or more guests.

When making a hotel reservation you should find out if the hotel offers rooms with special configurations or amenities intended to enhance guests’ stay. Such rooms sometimes come with the following:

• Clean air or PURE rooms have special filtering devices installed to ensure very low levels of pollutants, pollen, dust, and eye irritants.

• Fitness rooms come with fitness equipment making it convenient and private for guests to workout.

• Room outfitted to appeal to business people come with features such as multiline speaker/conference phones, fax/copy machines, secure Internet access, and expanded workplaces.

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