Summer vacations are here. And it’s that time of the year when you pack your bags and head to resorts. If you are a resort regular, there are some clichés that are inescapable.
For instance, literally every resort (and several city hotels too) will greet you with a flower garland and a synthetic-tasting welcome drink. From virulent green to hibiscus red, I have seen them all. At some places, the garland is replaced by a sea-shell necklace or a local stole (which you will never use) but the formula is the same.
Is it time to rethink the welcome experience at a hotel? Chef Sandeep Pande, who is with the Marriott group, terms these drinks “obnoxious”, and worries about the impression that the first F&B experience of a guest at a hotel gives.
He has a point. Most people arriving at a resort after a long journey would love a glass of chilled water, not sickly sweet drinks. Why not do the practical thing, as The Venetian at Las Vegas does. It has fountains with chilled citrus-infused water that guests can help themselves to. This will also save the hotel the use of a precious staff resource, who has to stand around at the entrance balancing a tray.
Having said that, there are some who do this welcome experience really well — such as the Taj Falaknuma, where you are offered a choice of fresh mint-based concoctions. And as you mount the stairs to this royal palace, a shower of rose petals falls on you.
It’s not just the welcome drink; there are a whole host of frivolous things that Pande points out hotels can happily do away with, including that plate of cookies with cling film placed in your room, and he is running a campaign on these on Twitter with the hashtag #BanFromHotels. Taking off from his peeves, here are my personal bugbears:
Peek-a-boo bathrooms
What is with this strange fad of transparent glass wall bathrooms in hotel rooms? Some do have pull down shades or curtains, but the whole thing feels a bit kinky. According to a hotel insider, the glass walls are a design element to make the room look bigger, but please can we have some privacy around certain places.
Towel art
A growing trend is to display towel art on the bed — you enter the room and spot the terry cloth fabric twisted into shapes of animals and birds. At first, I must confess I found these swan or peacock-shaped towels exotic and amusing. Now, it is beginning to seem plain silly and a waste of time of hotel staff. If you want to draw attention to the bed, are there better ways to do it? My vote goes to ITC Grand Bharat, which has a personalised pillow embroidered with the guest’s name.
Fruity overtures
The complimentary fruit basket is certainly a healthier option than the cookie plate, but wonder how many guests actually eat the stuff. Especially as the fruit quality varies, and given our climate, deteriorates rapidly. Perhaps, a better approach is one you notice at the Grand Hyatt, where you are told fresh fruit is available on request in the room — just call guest services.
Low-lustre lamps
Why do hotel rooms have so many lamps and light fixtures in the room — and all with the lowest wattage possible? The idea may be to make the room look cosy, but if you are on the wrong side of 40 and struggle with the printed word even with reading glasses, you want the option of a strong light.
Also, it’s not fun playing hunt the light switch when you are about to turn in — though a few hotels have finally begun putting a master switch at the bedside.
(Chitra Narayanan is an editorial consultant with Business Line who writes on consumer behaviour but keeps an interested gaze at the travel and hospitality sector)
