Why do hotels keep getting the basics wrong? You can pay cash, you can redeem points, you can stay somewhere “nice”—and still end up with curtains that don’t close, an AC that quits overnight, and a bathroom that offers way less privacy than anyone asked for.
And sometimes you’re reminded of that in the most unexpected ways.
When I first got started with miles and points, one of my regular reads was The Points Guy. This was back before it became a full-on travel-media behemoth—when “TPG” still felt like one guy writing hotel and flight reviews, not a whole ecosystem of content.
These days, I don’t go out of my way to seek out their stuff. But the algorithm has other plans. Since it’s travel-and-points adjacent, their Instagram Reels occasionally pop into my feed while I’m scrolling.
Most of the time, it’s an easy skip.
But then I got dragged into a Reel about hotel pet peeves. And… I have to admit that I agreed with almost all of it.
Because as it turns out, whether you’re staying at one of the world’s fanciest hotels (maybe booked with a pile of points) or at the kind of places normal folks like us end up staying, the problems are often exactly the same.
If you want to watch the Reel that started this whole train of thought, here it is:
The Points Guy: Hotel Pet Peeves (Instagram Reel)
The hotel basics that shouldn’t be this hard
What makes hotel pet peeves so universal is that they’re not complicated. Most of them come down to the same basic things: sleep, privacy, comfort, and not feeling like the room is designed to trick you into extra charges.
And once you notice these issues, you start seeing them everywhere.
1) Curtains that don’t actually close (or don’t block light)
This might be my #1 recurring hotel gripe, because it’s such an easy fix… and yet it keeps happening.
Some hotels install blackout curtains that don’t reach the edge of the window. Others leave gaps that let in a laser beam of parking-lot lighting directly into your face at 2:00 AM. And then there are the ones where the curtains technically close, but they’re so thin they might as well be decorative.
It’s one of those “how is this still a thing?” problems—so much so that it ended up on my list of five hotel room basics that shouldn’t be this hard.
And when the curtains do close, you’d think you’re safe… until you realize the light is still getting in anyway. I’ve had rooms where the “blackout” setup still allowed enough glow to turn the bed into a target—exactly the kind of thing that inspired my post about hotel light leaks that can ruin your sleep.
If the room isn’t dark, the rest of the “luxury” experience is already starting from behind.
2) Temperature control (and the AC that “mysteriously” stops working overnight)
A close second: hotel rooms that won’t stay at a comfortable temperature.
Sometimes it’s a thermostat that seems to exist solely for decoration. Other times it’s the hotel’s system deciding the room is “occupied” or “unoccupied” based on motion sensors, then dialing things back while you’re trying to sleep.
And then there’s the classic: the AC that’s fine when you go to bed, but feels like it shuts down sometime after midnight. You wake up at 3:00 AM, wondering if the hotel is trying to save money by turning the building into a terrarium.
I’m not picky about whether the room is cool or warm. I’m picky about the room doing what I tell it to do. There are some ways you can try to make that happen—and yes, I’ve absolutely tried them.
3) Peekaboo bathrooms
I don’t need a hotel bathroom to feel “open concept.” I need it to feel like a bathroom.
Glass walls and semi-private bathroom setups are one of those trends that hotels keep pushing as “modern” or “luxury,” but in real life, it often just feels awkward. Especially if you’re sharing the room with someone and don’t want your morning routine to be a group activity.
If you’ve ever wondered why hotels keep doing this, I went down that rabbit hole in my post about why hotels use glass bathroom walls (and why many guests hate them).
4) Showers designed by someone who doesn’t actually shower
There are a few shower trends that make me question whether the designer has ever tried to clean up after one.
The biggest offender: the half-glass “splash guard” shower that somehow manages to get water everywhere except where you actually want it. If the bathroom floor ends up soaked after a normal shower, that’s not “sleek design.” That’s a failure.
I’ve got a whole rant on this—because yes, it happened enough times to earn one—in my post about why half-glass hotel showers are the worst.
Bonus annoyance: low showerheads that aren’t adjustable. I’m not asking for a rainfall spa experience. I’m asking to not crouch like I’m trying to dodge a sprinkler.
5) Soundproofing (or the lack of it)
This is one of those issues you don’t notice until you really, really notice.
Thin walls, loud hallways, doors that slam like they’re made of sheet metal… or the fun surprise where you can hear full conversations from the room next door. (Or coughing. Or snoring. Or whatever you’d prefer not to be part of.)
I don’t think I’ve ever stayed in a hotel where soundproofing was perfect, but the worst version of this is when you get a connecting room and suddenly you’re sharing a wall that might as well be made of cardboard—something I covered in The Misery of Having a Connecting Room in Our Hyatt Hotel.
6) Towels that are either sandpaper or postage stamps
I’m not expecting the towels to feel like they came from a luxury spa. But there’s a wide gap between “plush and nice” and “this feels like it was designed to exfoliate paint.”
And then there’s the other version: towels that are so small you’re not sure if they’re meant for drying off or for polishing silverware.
At some point I got curious enough to try to explain the whole thing—why some properties give you fluffy towels and others hand you what feels like a repurposed shop rag—in Decoding Hotel Towels.
7) Shampoo and soap labels with microscopic font
I get it: minimalist design is a thing. But if I need my phone flashlight and reading glasses to figure out which bottle is shampoo and which one is conditioner, the design has gone too far.
This one became such a consistent annoyance that it earned its own post: Tiny, unreadable toiletry labels.
8) Minibars (where I mostly disagree, but also… not really)
This was one point where I didn’t fully agree with the Reel.
Personally, I don’t think most hotel rooms need minibars at all. In a typical room, they usually just take up space, add temptations you didn’t ask for, and create one more thing that can go wrong on the bill.
But… if a hotel insists on having a minibar, then it shouldn’t be a booby trap. I’ve gotten hit with those “sensor” setups where the hotel claims an item moved and suddenly you’re staring at a mystery charge—something I wrote about in The Case of the Mysterious Minibar Charge.
And if we’re talking about truly nice properties? I’m with them: a few basics like water, soda, and some snacks being complimentary goes a long way. If a hotel is going to brag about its “elevated guest experience,” it shouldn’t feel like you’re being nickel-and-dimed.
So what do I want in a hotel room?
The funny part is that none of these are “luxury” requests. They’re just the basics—things that make a hotel room feel like it was designed for actual humans who want to sleep, shower, and exist without fighting the room.
In fact, I’ve written before about the other things I always appreciate in a hotel room.
At minimum, my personal “please don’t make this harder than it needs to be” wishlist includes:
- Blackout curtains that actually work
- Temperature controls that don’t shut off overnight
- A bathroom with real privacy
- A shower that keeps water inside the shower
- Enough hooks and places to hang towels
- Outlets (and ideally USB ports) where you can actually reach them from the bed
- Lighting that doesn’t require a scavenger hunt of mystery switches
- A place to put a suitcase that isn’t the floor
- Wi-Fi that works without a 14-step login process
None of that is asking for luxury. It’s just asking for the room to do its job.
Final Thought
It’s kind of funny—and kind of frustrating—that hotel pet peeves are so consistent across the board.
Somehow, even the fanciest hotels still struggle with the basics.
What’s your biggest hotel pet peeve?
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