The only two fixed moments in the entire Hotel UX are the check in and the check out. Even the exploring, research and reservation are not obligatory parts of the process (e.g. when travelling through Provence in the summer of 2007, we didn't have any reservations but rather crashed a different hotel each night).

In this rant I'm focusing mostly on the business / conference hotel experience, rather than a classical leisure stay.

My top three activities

1. Shower
2. Sleep
3. Work (Email)

I rarely wish to spend more time than is needed in the room, and focus mostly on exploring the city, having breakfast and (potentially) working in a nice looking café, just around the corner.

Here are some ideas the hotels would benefit from. They require a minimum of intervention in the planning process

1. Connectivity

Water, air and internet are the new necessities. Having limited connectivity or charging $20 for a day’s worth of internet is ludicrous in this day in age. It’s just an image of an old school, mastodontic approach to the hospitality business — “Hey, let’s charge everything possible!”. In certain hotel groups, only five-star hotels have wi-fi, while the three-stars charge their guests.

2. Charging (your computer)

Most hotel bathrooms have a shavers only electrical socket. There was obviously a point in time (my guess would be the 50's) where the architects and interior designers realised that this was a real necessity and planned accordingly.

The same needs to happen for our digital extensions, portables ranging from cameras, laptops, and mostly — smart phones (or at least to finally make an iOS phone able to make it through the day). I constantly keep finding myself unplugging the hotel TV, bending over benches, pushing the minibar, and replacing the landline plug with my iPhone plug.

3. Charging (yourself)

The bed cover. Where does it go? What am I supposed to do with it? I usually put in on the floor (and then feel bad when leaving — it’s dirty!). Sometimes I fold it and put in the wardrobe (if they have it). Can we choose to live and sleep without the bed cover? How many of you use the cover in your home? Do you miss it if it’s not in the hotel room?

4. Refreshing

With many written things regarding the learning process of the shower logics (namely Norman’s Design of Everyday Things), I will not repeat this as an issue, but rather build upon it.

I’m happy when I get the temperature to be just right. I'm not willing to lightly throw away that moment of happiness. That is why, in the soap phase, I do not turn the water off, but rather hurry and try to waste as little water as possible. This opens the question: where does the shower head go? There’s usually no room behind the faucet, so I constantly find myself putting the head on the floor, holding it with my feet, and hoping it’s not gonna turn around and splash me in the face and all over the bathroom.

5. Personalisation

It would be great to add a human, personalised touch to the entire experience. If someone travels in the same brand of hotels, you would imagine the reception would know in what part of the hotel he would like to get a room, what he likes to eat, drink and so on. Maybe you would replace the contents of the entire mini bar with a certain brand of drinks, the kind he always drinks. This, for instance, is a hack that doesn't cost the hotel anything other than little time to prepare. The drinks are charged by usage anyway, but it’s a nice little touch that goes a long way.

Examples like this are far and beyond. I would argue that a five minute online search would provide sufficient information to make a little gesture for just about anyone.

What are your top activities in a hotel room, and what are the accompanying things that annoy you during your stay?