The Ultimate Hotel For The Seasoned Traveler

Every time I stay in a hotel, I am annoyed by details which have become to me important issues that most of the hotels I've stayed in haven't tackled yet. So here are my rants, hoping someone will read them:

1) If you promise perks & benefits to guests that hold status with your program, deliver what your promise. For instance, if you promise top-tier status holders that they will be upgraded upon checkin if a higher category room is available, just do it.

I always check room availability on my smartphone minutes before I check in. I just hate it when I see that many rooms are available in higher categories and when I'm told at check-in : "I am sorry we can't upgrade you because we are 100% booked". I'd rather be told: "I'm sorry we're not going to upgrade you because we just don't feel like it". At least, it's not a blatant lie. Otherwise change the list of benefits of your program to "room upgrade depending on availability and mood of the staff member at check-in".

I frequently choose the hotel I'm going to stay at depending on the status I hold with the brand and the benefits that I should receive. When promised benefits aren't delivered, it just feels like I'm being ripped off. This is definitely NOT what you want your frequent guests to feel like.

2) By 2013, all hotels should have easily accessible electrical outlets AND USB ports on BOTH sides of their beds. I just hate it when I have to crawl under the bed to find an electrical outlet or even worse if I have to plug my phone away from my bed because there is no accessible power socket. I don't want to have to get up to get my phone in the morning or before I fall asleep at night.

3) If you charge for wireless internet access then let guests use as many devices as they want. Some hotels still charge on a per device basis and this is not acceptable anymore in this day and age. When I travel with my iPhone, iPad, MacBook & Kindle I just can't fathom being charged $15 X 4 everyday to have internet access. It just kills my mood and makes me never want to go back to that property.

How can you justify charging more for one day than what I pay per month for my cable connection at home?

And Please don't make me go through the trouble of logging in every 24 hours. It just upsets me. I don't want to lose 10 minutes every day to log all my devices back in. If Apple gives away free wireless internet access in all their stores without the need to log in, why can't you?

4) Please provide your guests with decent broadband speeds. 256k isn't acceptable anymore. Every guest should have at least 5Mb/1Mb. I just can't stand it anymore when I update my apps on my iPhone in the morning and it takes me 25 minutes compared to 30 seconds at home. In addition, if I have to restore my iPhone from my iCloud backup, it just shouldn't take me three days (as recently happened to a friend of mine)

5) Get rid of old iPod docks that won't work with most recent iPhones. Get bluetooth speakers a la Jambox that will work with any phone or tablet. You can't imagine how frustrating it can be to see an iPod dock sitting on your bed side table and not being able to use it to charge or listen to music from my iPhone. I just makes me feel like I'm staying in a hotel that was never renovated.

6) Let me open the door to my room with my smartphone so that I don't have to carry a key with me.

7) Let me charge my electronics inside the in-room safe thanks to an integrated electrical outlet.

Any hotel that will comply with these simple suggestions will likely greatly enhance their guest experience. So why not do it right now?