As hotels spend billions on 21st century upgrades, younger generations of travellers will grow up sleeping in a new breed of hotel, with better beds, splashier showers, trendier bars and flatscreen TVs. At the same time, some amenities and services have disappeared like dodo birds. It's fun to remember them though….
-
Wake up calls from an actual person – Guests today use the telephone keypad. Who wants to mess with the potential for human error if they've got a plane to catch?
-
Vibrating beds – They were a gimmick. Hotels ultimately got rid of the coin-operated beds because they never worked and were costly to repair.
-
Brass room keys – Still seen occasionally in Europe, but modern hotels use lightweight, ATM-like key cards because they are secure, convenient and cheap to replace if people nab them as souvenirs.
-
Sanitizer bands around toilet seats – Hotels stopped bothering because everyone knows they're phony. Most suspect that housekeepers would simply take an old wet towel, pick it up, wipe the seats and put the band over it saying it's been sanitized.
-
Postcards and stationery – At a time when people rely on email, instant messaging and cellphones to connect, many hotels have phased out stationery and postcards.
-
Four-inch-thick foam mattresses – Hotels used to spend more money on box springs than mattresses, but since the Westin chain came out with its Heavenly Bed in 1999, the emphasis gradually shifted from box springs to a quality mattress and sheets.
-
Window that open – Concerns about safety, liability and energy efficiecny have forced most windows shut.
-
Logo towels – Some hotels still have them, but they've mostly disappeared. Literally. The trend toward centralising laundry operations with 30 or 40 hotels has also made logo towels difficult to maintain.
-
Shoehorns – With sewing kits and shoe buffers, they're the inexpensive giveaways that have mostly vanished.
Excerpt reprinted with permission from "Waldorf Hysteria, Hotel Manners, Misbehaviours & Minibars" by Arbon Publishing.
