Hotel Pitfalls: What to Look Out for When Choosing Where to Stay

What should you look for when choosing a hotel, and what are some pitfalls you can try to avoid? Get ready for summer travel with this week's episode full of tips and laughs.

Episode Highlights

• Pay attention to the bathroom layouts when viewing photos and reviews as a new hotel trend has been for more open bathroom layouts or glass doors/walls which may not be great for families or friend groups
• Hotels are getting better at sustainability initiatives but many are just paying lip service so if this is important to you, look for companies truly dedicated to environmental issues and offer things like bottle refill stations
• If you want to check out the location of the hotel, look at the Google Street view to see more what the area is like
• Keep in mind that suburban hotels off the highway are more likely to offer free parking, laundry facilities, and free breakfast
• When booking city hotels, make sure that it is located near public transportation but avoid hotels near train stations or bus stations
• When selecting a room, look at the square footage to compare the various room categories
• Keep in mind that when you are traveling internationally, it is hard to find rooms with two queens or doubles. It is even harder to find rooms that sleep five. Typically the rooms will have a double/king or two twins
• Sofa beds are not always clean so always ask for clean linens, just keep in mind that you will need to make them up yourself
• Accessible rooms sometimes have lower closets, which might not be great for longer dresses, and the showers might have roll in showers and the floor of the bathroom can get really wet
• Request a room location away from the elevator / ice machine and a higher floor if near a loud highway
• Connecting rooms have thin doors and there is a lot of noise that comes through so put in your special request "no connecting room door"
• Be sure to read reviews and look out for red flags about noise, cleanliness, location, and service
• Bring a sleep mask or something to cover the glowing appliances and lights in the room
• Travel with a white noise machine
• Look out for daily resort fees and high city taxes
• Some brands or boutique hotels offer happy hours or cookies throughout the day
• Don't expect upgrades - book the category that you want
• Check out what the parking situation is and whether or not it is indoors or outdoors. Parking garages will sometimes list the clearance height
• Tipping housekeeping for good service is appreciated so it helps to carry some smaller bills