Hotel Madness: Bad water pressure vs. Small towels

by Mike Barish on
This intriguing Hotel Madness contest is a battle of bathroom bothers. The #7 seed Bad water pressure tries to drown #10 seed Small towels. Whether you’ve spent your day at the beach or need to clean up before a full day of business meetings, bad water pressure can make your shower useless and leave you a smelly mess. On the flip side, getting out of the shower only to discover that your towels are smaller than a handkerchief is a problem that leaves you wet and shivering.

Read the full bios for each of this peeves below. Then be sure to vote for the one that makes you the maddest! The winner advances to the second round.

(7) Bad Water Pressure
Waking up in hotel rooms can be confusing. You’re not 100% sure of where you are and the comfort of your morning routine has been disrupted. Surely a shower will help you shake the cobwebs out of your head. Not so fast. Your hotel comes equipped with a moderate trickle of water with which to wash off the memories of last night’s corporate team building karaoke or the smell of livestock that has permeated every pour of your body since you hitched a ride in that horse trailer. Hope you don’t get any soap in your eyes.

(10) Small Towels
You’ve stepped out of your quasi-refreshing shower and need to towel off quickly because the default setting on all hotel thermostats is “Arctic.” Before your skin freezes solid, you wrap a towel around your…thigh. You’d like to get it around your entire torso, but, quite frankly, you have napkins larger than this back home. You double-check to make sure that you didn’t grab one of the hand towels or washcloths. Nope, this is the bath towel. You sneak a peak of yourself in the mirror. Sure, you ate a lot at the dinner last night but you’re no fatter than you were when you left home. It’s just a small towel that kind of feels like sandpaper.

So, which bathroom bother gets your blood boiling? Vote now!

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First round voting ends at 11:59EDT on Sunday, March 20.

More Hotel Madness action:
#1 No free Wi-Fi vs. #16 Annoying hotel TV channel
#2 Bad front desk service vs. #15 Everything about TV remotes
#3 Expensive parking vs. #14 Tightly tucked-in sheets
#4 Resort fees vs. #13 Early housekeeping visits
#5 No airport shuttle vs. #12 One-ply toilet paper
#6 No free breakfast vs. #11 Expensive minibars
#8 Room not ready on time vs. #9 Early checkout times

Follow along with the Hotel Madness tournament here.

Hotel Madness: No free breakfast vs. Expensive minibars

by Mike Barish on
This first round Hotel Madness match-up is all about food. Our #6 seed is No free breakfast, a killer when you just need some fuel to power you through a day of conferences, meetings or sightseeing. It’s battling #11 seed Expensive minibars. All too often, we find ourselves with late-night cravings for snacks. We’d satisfy it by raiding the minibar but it always seem to cost more than our hotel room did!

Take a closer look at this battle of hotel peeves below. Then cast your vote for the one that bothers you the most. The winner will advance to the second round of action.

(6) No Free Breakfast
Not everyone is a foodie. Sure, some people require that every meal, snack and crumb that they savor on a trip be culturally poignant. Other people, however, just need fuel. Or coffee. Easy enough to just stop in the lobby before the big conference/hike/day at the beach and fix yourself a simple breakfast. Sadly, your hotel offers nothing more than some instant coffee in your room. No continental breakfast. No omelet station. Certainly no buffet. Just a few teabags and non-dairy creamer. There’s a Starbucks across the street, though. $8 should get you some burnt coffee and a satisfactory to adequate muffin.

(11) Expensive Minibars
After a long day of meetings/sightseeing/tolerating your wife’s family at her nephew’s bris, you just want a nightcap and some M&Ms. You’re exhausted and everything in town is closed anyway. Of course, you can always snack in your room thanks to the ever-convenient minibar. Just grab a mini-bottle of rum, a can of cola and a bag of M&Ms and invite them all to that party in your mouth. Oh, just a heads up: those 50 milliliters of rum, 12 fluid ounces of cola and 3.27 ounces of chocolate with a hard candy shell will run you about $30. You’re also not going to feel well in the morning.

Which food foul bothers you more? Do you resent having to forage for your own breakfast or get ticked off by $10 Tic Tacs? Vote now!

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First round voting ends at 11:59EDT on Sunday, March 20.

More Hotel Madness action:
#1 No free Wi-Fi vs. #16 Annoying hotel TV channel
#2 Bad front desk service vs. #15 Everything about TV remotes
#3 Expensive parking vs. #14 Tightly tucked-in sheets
#4 Resort fees vs. #13 Early housekeeping visits
#5 No airport shuttle vs. #12 One-ply toilet paper
#7 Bad water pressure vs. #10 Small towels
#8 Room not ready on time vs. #9 Early checkout times

Follow along with the Hotel Madness tournament here.

Hotel Madness: No airport shuttle vs. One ply toilet paper

by Mike Barish on
The first round of Hotel Madness rolls along with a battle between #5 seed No airport shuttle and #12 seed One-ply toilet paper. In the NCAA basketball tournament, the 5-12 match-ups are always ripe for upsets and Hotel Madness may be no different. It’s such a hassle when there’s no airport shuttle. Having to pay for an expensive cab ride or navigating a foreign public transportation system just to get from the airport to your hotel can be a pain in the butt. However, once that’s done, you never think about it again. Meanwhile, the strong #12 seed One-ply toilet paper rubs you the wrong way for the length of your trip, meaning it’s an actual pain in your butt. It tears too soon as you’re tugging at the roll, it rips as you wipe and it shows the hotel’s blatant disregard for your behind.

Read more about these two tournament entrants below and then vote for the one that deserves to advance to the second round.

(5) No Airport Shuttle
Good news: you’re not in a city that requires you to have your own car! No need to worry about parking, gas or drinking. All you need to do is get yourself to the hotel, get settled in and turn that town inside out. So, you’ll just hop on the shuttle bus and be in that jacuzzi in no time, right? Yeah, about that bus. It doesn’t exist. You can take a cab, though. Or public transportation. The hotel is just two bus transfers, six lightrail stops and a four mile walk from the airport. Easy enough for someone who’s never been to this city. Also, public transportation stops at 11pm. Hope you have cab fare!

(12) One-Ply Toilet Paper
Travel wreaks havoc on your stomach. From the strange food to hours spent on airplanes, your GI tract just doesn’t fire on all cylinders when you’re away from home (or, if you’re really unlucky, it fires on a few extra cylinders). When the time comes to use the bathroom in your hotel, you’re already uncomfortable because you’ve lost your home toilet advantage. The last thing you need is toilet paper that you can see through. Amazingly, even the nicest “five star” hotels provide the cheapest, thinnest, one-ply toilet paper available. If you’re hotel doesn’t respect your butt then it doesn’t respect you.

Are you more upset by the lack of airport transportation or thin, useless toilet paper? Will we see a classic upset of a #12 over a #5? Vote now!

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First round voting ends at 11:59EDT on Sunday, March 20.

More Hotel Madness action:
#1 No free Wi-Fi vs. #16 Annoying hotel TV channel
#2 Bad front desk service vs. #15 Everything about TV remotes
#3 Expensive parking vs. #14 Tightly tucked-in sheets
#4 Resort fees vs. #13 Early housekeeping visits
#6 No free breakfast vs. #11 Expensive minibars
#7 Bad water pressure vs. #10 Small towels
#8 Room not ready on time vs. #9 Early checkout times

Follow along with the Hotel Madness tournament here.

Hotel Madness: Resort fees vs. Early housekeeping visits

by Mike Barish on
Continuing the first round of the Hotel Madness tournament, #4 seed Resort fees takes on #13 seed Early housekeeping visits. Resort fees are a strong contender because they take money out of our wallets and – unlike parking fees – we have no idea what we’re paying for. Popular in Las Vegas, resort fees are a mystery and wreak havoc on our travel budgets. Meanwhile, sleeping in should be one of the luxurious of leisure travel. Why, then, are we constantly woken up by the housekeeping staff while we’re still sleeping off last night’s trip to the midnight buffet?

Read up on both of this strong Hotel Madness peeves below and then vote for the one that you want to see advance to the next round.

(4) Resort Fees
It’s check-in time! You’ve paid $200 for your room. That, of course, doesn’t include all applicable taxes. Taxes are inevitable, as they say, so you don’t mind those too much. It’s all part of life on the road. So, you paid the room rate and taxes. You’re good to go, right? Well, not so fast. There’s a $15 per night Resort Fee on top of all that. What does that Resort Fee cover? Your guess is as good as ours. You have to pay separately for your meals, movies, minibar, parking and just about everything else. Best to just curse under your breath, sign the check-in agreement and sulk off to your room.

(13) Early Housekeeping Visits
You’ve barely been asleep long enough to mess up your sheets and housekeeping is knocking on the door to freshen up the towels and awkwardly fold your laundry. No one needs the bed made at 8:42am. Yes, you could have put the “Do not disturb” sign on the door, but you didn’t expect housekeeping to show up while it was still dark outside. You wake up early enough when you’re at home. You should be allowed to sleep in a bit and not have to answer the door in your underpants telling housekeeping to come back later.

Which of these nuisances is the bigger annoyance? Vote now!

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More Hotel Madness action:
#1 No free Wi-Fi vs. #16 Annoying hotel TV channel
#2 Bad front desk service vs. #15 Everything about TV remotes
#3 Expensive parking vs. #14 Tightly tucked-in sheets
#5 No airport shuttle vs. #12 One-ply toilet paper
#6 No free breakfast vs. #11 Expensive minibars
#7 Bad water pressure vs. #10 Small towels
#8 Room not ready on time vs. #9 Early checkout times

First round voting ends at 11:59EDT on Sunday, March 20.

Follow along with the Hotel Madness tournament here.

Hotel Madness: Expensive parking vs. Tightly tucked-in sheets

by Mike Barish on
The first round of Hotel Madness continues with #3 seed Expensive parking battling #14 seed Tightly tucked in sheets. Paying for gas and dealing with rental car companies can make trips a real pain in the butt. Add in having to pay an arm and a leg to park at the hotel and you’ll be ready to curse Henry Ford for ever inventing cars. Once you do get to your room, though, going to sleep will be a challenge if you don’t have the upper body strength to turn down your own bed. Hotel sheets are tucked tighter than a pair of jeggings on a hippopotamus. Who’s running the housekeeping department? Sgt. Slaughter?

We break down these two Hotel Madness annoyances below. Vote for the one that ticks you of the most and the winner will advance to the second round of action.

(3) Expensive Parking
Not all cities are conducive to walking. Heck, not all trips are in cities. Perhaps you’re on a road trip or had to rent a car in your destination because everything is spread out and people actually ask you if you lost your license because of a DUI should you even consider walking somewhere (we’re looking at you, LA). Some places just require you to have a car. And some hotels require you to pay $15 a day to park it there. Don’t forget to tip the valet $2 each time you need it, too.

(14) Tightly Tucked-In Sheets
Travelers come in all shapes and sizes from chunky to portly to fit. No traveler, however, is thin enough to fit under the covers once the those housekeepers make the bed. Drill sergeants don’t require blankets to be that tight. You shouldn’t need the Jaws of Life just to get into bed.

This is a tough one. Paying for parking is just plain tacky but your bed can make or break your trip. Which one bothers you more? Vote now!

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More Hotel Madness action:
#1 No free Wi-Fi vs. #16 Annoying hotel TV channel
#2 Bad front desk service vs. #15 Everything about TV remotes
#4 Resort fees vs. #13 Early housekeeping visits
#5 No airport shuttle vs. #12 One-ply toilet paper
#6 No free breakfast vs. #11 Expensive minibars
#7 Bad water pressure vs. #10 Small towels
#8 Room not ready on time vs. #9 Early checkout times

First round voting ends at 11:59EDT on Sunday, March 20.

Follow along with the Hotel Madness tournament here.