Comments on: The Weirdness of the Post-Pandemic Hotel Room

By: Curt J. Sampson

Curt J. Sampson — Sat, 22 Apr 2023 12:45:47 +0000

I don’t mind electronic menus at all when they’re done right. Here in Japan there are plenty of restaurants where there’s a tablet at the table, with a menu that’s easy to navigate, you can add whatever you need to your order, and when you’ve got it all right, push the “send order” button. It works well.

But that is a pretty different world from, “figure out how to scan a QR code on your phone and then start installing apps” thing, which I would despise.

By: Nicholas G. Angel

Nicholas G. Angel — Fri, 24 Mar 2023 20:56:37 +0000

Oh Patrick you really hit it with this complaint. So true. Not even cheapo plastic cups wrapped in cheapo plastic wrap in the bathrooms?
What? Do I now have to bring a collapsing cup from Magellan’s travel catalogue? Or, go to the Boy Scout store in town.
Now the Da-n QR code. You said it perfectly.

By: Leslie

Leslie — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 21:07:35 +0000

The QR code thing is because, like every other retail business, hospitality has discovered the ability to steal personal information from their customers. Requiring one to download an app in order to do anything exposes one’s phone’s contents for stealing, and allows the business to track one wherever one goes. Stick to your guns and refuse to participate in this invasive trend.

By: Ian

Ian — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:50:51 +0000

Just say it- these hotels and restaurants are “cheaping out”. I wonder if the amount of money they save is more than the money they lose by jerking customers [x-customers?] around.

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 21:19:44 +0000

“…to slurp from cupped hands like savages.”

If the option is to open and use a plastic-wrapped plastic cup or slurp from my hands, then call me a savage. Are hands so bad? I wouldn’t be surprised if the last time you ate a sandwich for instance, you used your savage little hands too.

But I’m with you on the QR codes. I have a smartphone and can use it, but no way do I want to read a menu on it. A menu selection is a comparison activity, in which you need to glance back, and around, the menu, which translates to lots of scrolling on a phone. Yes, the restaurant has to print a piece of paper for me, but at least I’ve saved the hotel a plastic cup.

By: CLTflyer

CLTflyer — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 17:30:08 +0000

QR code experience last week at the Hilton Garden Inn Downtown in DC. The QR code, on a small display in the room, did open a webpage with several options such as “bell boy” or “room service menu”. Only none of the tiles were clickable or did anything. I tried reloading and even restarting my phone. I called the front desk but they never picked up the phone. I went downstairs and demonstrated the non-operative webpage of tiles. “It is supposed to take you to the app” the woman said, working extremely hard to care but I wasn’t feeling it. “I don’t know” she then offered, “but you can order your food at the bar and wait for it.” I ordered through Uber Eats from a very nice Thai restaurant.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 17:17:49 +0000

Bravo! These aren’t whiny, they are legitimate complaints, and I echo them. It’s not unreasonable to expect a few glasses in a hotel room. They aren’t charging *less*, yet we’re expected to settle for less. Just like those grocery items that have less content or smaller sizes for the same or more money.

And I despise QR codes and have left places that insist I use them and won’t provide a NORMAL menu. I don’t have a smartypants phone anyway, so these Orwellian exercises are wasted on me. If they don’t want my business enough to provide a proper menu, then I won’t give it to them.

Like we’re saving the planet and its woodlands by not printing menus! Right.

By: Alan

Alan — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 16:38:50 +0000

I stayed at a no-name motel back in October 2020 and it was the cleanest hotel room I have ever seen in my life, including every 5-star hotel I’ve stayed at. Every surface was absolutely spotless and even the bed cover looked like it had been freshly washed. Last summer I spent three nights at a boutique hotel in Montreal and it was fine and came complete with glasses as should be expected in a civilized country like Canada. That said I agree that service is definitely worse than before and we are in this weird place where no-one has any money to spend, goods are in short supply, flights and hotels are overbooked and prices are sky-high. It’s like the pandemic accelerated the existing split in our society, tossing some middle-class folks up into upper-class land while pushing the rest of the middle class down into the lower classes.

With respect to QR codes I am fine with the codes themselves but what is on the other end of them should be better, not worse than a paper menu and certainly shouldn’t involve any sub-menus or navigation, everything should be clearly listed on the landing page.

By: Harold Roth

Harold Roth — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 16:18:25 +0000

If they really want to go digital, why not have a menu channel on the TV?

Channel 93 is your menu channel, Bonne apetit

QR codes are getting ridiculous in their usage, a fair number of people do not have ‘smart’ phones or want them, guess I’ll go out and chop down a cherry tree to do my part of the paper user group.

By: Stephen Geis

Stephen Geis — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 16:05:09 +0000

This is a post to which I would have liked to hit a “Like” button