A few months ago we visited New Orleans. While we loved our stay at The Eliza Jane, there was one thing about it that was less than optimal.
I was reminded of this ordeal by a rant on Miles to Memories about the uselessness of connecting doors, I have one additional reason to hate these portals to other rooms. I meant to write about it but at the time I decided to let it go. However, it still bothers me.
On the first night of our stay, we arrived after 1 AM due to flight delays from Orlando. After paying for an overpriced Lyft, we collapsed into bed (after taking pictures of the room, which is one of the underappreciated things about being travel bloggers).
While it might have registered that we had a connecting room, we surely didn’t care at that point and we weren’t going to ask for a different one.
The following night was the Freddie Awards which meant another late night coming back to the room and collapsing into bed.
It wasn’t until the third night that our nightmare happened. It wasn’t just that we had loud neighbors; we’re long over getting upset about that. Sure, people might listen to the TV too loud or have a little too much fun and lose control of their inside voice sometimes. I mean, I’m sure the first time our friends had me watch John Wick, we weren’t our room neighbors’ best friends, either.
Occasionally, you’ll hear (or feel) things coming from the room next door and that’s fine by us. Everyone’s free to do what they want in a hotel room. Especially if you’re staying at the W Hollywood.
But this one thing was one of the worst noises you want to hear nowadays.
The COUGHING!!!!!
Everyone coughs. OK., I get it. But this wasn’t that. It was a chesty cough that sounded like bronchitis or even worse, like COVID. If you’ve heard a COVID cough, you know what it sounds like and that’s what this sounded like coming from the room next to us and through the CONNECTING DOOR!!!
After 2 hours of hacking, Sharon took action. We weren’t going to complain to the hotel because it’s not the guest’s fault. But we could try to do what little we could to protect ourselves and we stacked towels along the bottom of the door, which had at least a 1-inch gap.
Since the coughing wasn’t stopping, I had to sleep with my noise-canceling over-the-ear headphones on to drown out the noise.
The next morning, we heard housekeeping knock on their door. We poked our heads out and advised them that they might want to put on masks before cleaning the room next door because the guests were coughing all night long.
We also left a note for housekeeping in our room to leave the towels where they were.
We figured our neighbors might have checked out and we headed to bed early the following evening for our flight the next morning.
Around 11 PM, we heard them come back to the room and within a few minutes, there it was again, COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!, just as loud and strong as the day before.
This time, I knew exactly what to do and put back on my headphones. White noise wasn’t enough, as I needed music to quiet the storm.
While we found no use for connecting doors before the pandemic, they were more bothersome when you’re worried that your neighbors might have a contagious virus that you have no desire to bring home from your vacation.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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