Hotels

911

911

Well-known Member
Location
USA
My biggest complaint with hotels is their beds. Why don’t the better hotels offer a firm mattress in at least some of their rooms? I have stayed in numerous hotels (mostly 4 & 5 star) and I have yet to find one hotel that had a comfortable mattress.

My mattress here at home is like a slab, which my wife and I enjoy. When we travel, we are both wishing that our mattress could go along with us.
 

Never had a bad mattress, and I traveled quite a bit, in my younger days. 4&5 star hotels have bad mattresses? Better check who's giving out those stars! Better yet: When you hit town, visit the local hardware store, buy two 3/8" 4x4 sheets of plywood, put them under your 4&5 star hotel mattresses, and sleep "easy." If all else fails, pull the sheets and covers off the bed, and sleep on the "slab" floor. Sweet dreams!
 
hollydolly said:
Large Chain Hotels in the UK tend to have very good mattresses...perhaps you and your wife should come here to visit , @911 🙂
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I was in London about 10 years ago. We stayed at a 100% British hotel, which my wife and the travel agent selected. As I remember it, I can’t remember us complaining about the hotel, just the food. I mean, Baked Beans and Fish for breakfast? Really? BTW, the breakfasts at the hotel was much better than the hotels here in the states offer.
 
Aunt Bea said:
My biggest complaint about hotels is the price!

When I travel all I need/want is a safe clean quiet place to sleep, shower, and store my possessions.
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I totally avoid what I call “trucker motels.” I like Hilton, Holiday Inn, Radisson and Hyatt. I am OK with Hampton, HI Express, Sheraton and Embassy Suites.

Super 8, Clarion, Ramada, Motel 6, Red Roof and Quality Inn, I avoid.
 
I tend to agree with 911 about most hotels/motels. We've driven fairly often, in the past, and seldom found a place to stay overnight that was of any real quality...irregardless of price. Over the past few years, our "hotel" stays are largely at the casinos, and their beds and facilities are very good....and for us, free(of course, we pay for them at the slots and poker tables).
 
911 said:
I was in London about 10 years ago. We stayed at a 100% British hotel, which my wife and the travel agent selected. As I remember it, I can’t remember us complaining about the hotel, just the food. I mean, Baked Beans and Fish for breakfast? Really? BTW, the breakfasts at the hotel was much better than the hotels here in the states offer.
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Oh yes baked beans at breakfast... (I'm not a great fan I must admit)..but it's a tradition. However you wouldn't have got Fish with baked beans.. fish is served on it's own..kippers, smoked haddock, etc....and baked beans are genrally served either on toast, or with a full traditional English breakfast..sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast etc...

I'm pleased you found our breakfasts to be superior to hotel breakfasts in the USA.. , they're generally very good!!
 
911 said:
My biggest complaint with hotels is their beds. Why don’t the better hotels offer a firm mattress in at least some of their rooms? I have stayed in numerous hotels (mostly 4 & 5 star) and I have yet to find one hotel that had a comfortable mattress.

My mattress here at home is like a slab, which my wife and I enjoy. When we travel, we are both wishing that our mattress could go along with us.
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I don't really have problems with the mattresses, but the pillows are terrible. They're never firm enough, just little feather puffs. I'm always calling for extra pillows. Wife and I try to bring our pillows from home whenever we can.
 
Lc jones said:
Any thoughts about staying in an AirBNB? My daughter always stays in them while traveling and loves them🙂
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The house we just stayed in last week for vacation in Maine was an Air BnB, it was pretty good. First time we've ever done the Air Bnb.
 
JimW said:
The house we just stayed in last week for vacation in Maine was an Air BnB, it was pretty good. First time we've ever done the Air Bnb.
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Were the beds comfortable? How about the cleanliness? Those two items are really important to me as well as it being peaceful 😊
 
Lc jones said:
Were the beds comfortable? How about the cleanliness? Those two items are really important to me as well as it being peaceful 😊
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Yes, the beds were comfy, just a little smaller than what we're used to. We have a kingsize bed at home and the largest bed in this house was a queen, still not bad and the price was pretty good too. The house was very clean, they had a cleaning crew in a few hours before we arrived.
 
H
hollydolly said:
Oh yes baked beans at breakfast... (I'm not a great fan I must admit)..but it's a tradition. However you wouldn't have got Fish with baked beans.. fish is served on it's own..kippers, smoked haddock, etc....and baked beans are genrally served either on toast, or with a full traditional English breakfast..sausages, eggs, bacon, mushrooms, toast etc...

I'm pleased you found our breakfasts to be superior to hotel breakfasts in the USA.. , they're generally very good!!
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Holly....The fish was separate. I asked the hostess what it was and she said, “Fish.” I asked the Hostess what it was that I was looking at and she told me fish. I was surprised. I thought maybe it was left-over from dinner.

I did see the eggs, potatoes, sausages and bacon. I was impressed with the variety and the food was hot.
 
911 said:
I was in London about 10 years ago...... just the food. I mean, Baked Beans and Fish for breakfast? Really? BTW, the breakfasts at the hotel was much better than the hotels here in the states offer.
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Oh man. The Full English Breakfast (a.k.a. heart attack on a plate) is the best part of travel. I normally stay in B&B's and look forward to ham, sausage, eggs, black pudding, potato, tomato, mushrooms, (everything fried ) along with the beans. It's my once a year deviation from a healthy diet and I enjoy it. Don't normally get fish --- usually have to special order something like kippers if it's offered at all (at least in my experience).
As far as original posting, I have stayed for single nights at Premier Inns (the 'budget' chain of the UK) and found them comfortable. But everyone has different ideas of comfort.
 
JimW said:
The house we just stayed in last week for vacation in Maine was an Air BnB, it was pretty good. First time we've ever done the Air Bnb.
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We do AirBnb and VRBO on many trips. We've had overwhelmingly good experiences. Worst case we had was a place with inqdequte A/C (and we were there in hot weather). That was definitely the exception. The online reservation and messaging site is really well done. Easy to use, questions usually get answered within 24 hours (if not within a few hours). You can go online and look without signing on to see yourself. We like them because we're not big on eating out. We'd rather cook for ourselves and maybe go out a couple of times for the fun of it. Even if you don't cook, the places usually (in our experience) cost less than a hotel room. Often, significantly less. We're going to Ottawa, Montreal, and Quebec City soon and the hotel prices there are quite high. We're using AirBnb for the entire trip.
 
911 said:
H

Holly....The fish was separate. I asked the hostess what it was and she said, “Fish.” I asked the Hostess what it was that I was looking at and she told me fish. I was surprised. I thought maybe it was left-over from dinner.

I did see the eggs, potatoes, sausages and bacon. I was impressed with the variety and the food was hot.
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How rude of your hostess... !! She should have told you exactly what fish it was. The usual fish for breakfast is smoked haddock , or Kippers... and of course you could have kedgeree, which is spicy (curried) rice and eggs, with flaked haddock,

Where was this, do you remember ?
 
retiredtraveler said:
Oh man. The Full English Breakfast (a.k.a. heart attack on a plate) is the best part of travel. I normally stay in B&B's and look forward to ham, sausage, eggs, black pudding, potato, tomato, mushrooms, (everything fried ) along with the beans. It's my once a year deviation from a healthy diet and I enjoy it. Don't normally get fish --- usually have to special order something like kippers if it's offered at all (at least in my experience).
As far as original posting, I have stayed for single nights at Premier Inns (the 'budget' chain of the UK) and found them comfortable. But everyone has different ideas of comfort.
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Premier Inns are ok for one or 2 nights, usually clean but very basic..I prefer Travellodge when it comes to the Chain hotels in the UK ...
 
hollydolly said:
How rude of your hostess... !! She should have told you exactly what fish it was. The usual fish for breakfast is smoked haddock , or Kippers... and of course you could have kedgeree, which is spicy (curried) rice and eggs, with flaked haddock,

Where was this, do you remember ?
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I have been trying to remember the name. I think it has the word “field” in it. Maybe something like Chesfield or something like that. Just drawing a blank.
 
911 said:
I have been trying to remember the name. I think it has the word “field” in it. Maybe something like Chesfield or something like that. Just drawing a blank.
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Chesterfield In Derbyshire?..In the North of England?

Truthfully there's lots of places with ''field'' in their name in the UK :D
 
My wife just came home and I asked her. She got out her journal from there and told me that the hotel was the Chesterfield Mayfair. I think we were close to Buckingham Palace.
 
LOL...you were talking about the Hotel and not the place it was in...:D..

The Chesterfield is an Upmarket Hotel with fine dining restaurants .... I'm shocked your server (not the hostess) would say ''fish'' when asked ...

This is their breakfast menu...as you can see the breakfast fish is '' smoked Salmon'' or haddock... (as I said previously that it would be)

https://www.chesterfieldmayfair.com...hash=3412F96EBA44E2526B2867E569D7E85A644832FD
 
The last time I stayed in a motel they mistakenly gave me a smoking room. I opened the door and the stench of X number of years of smoking in it damn near floored me and I used to smoke. I went back and got a nonsmoking room.
 
hollydolly said:
LOL...you were talking about the Hotel and not the place it was in...:D..

The Chesterfield is an Upmarket Hotel with fine dining restaurants .... I'm shocked your server (not the hostess) would say ''fish'' when asked ...

This is their breakfast menu...as you can see the breakfast fish is '' smoked Salmon'' or haddock... (as I said previously that it would be)

https://www.chesterfieldmayfair.com...hash=3412F96EBA44E2526B2867E569D7E85A644832FD
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I remember my first morning there. It was a beautiful day and the hotel was just as beautiful. When we went to breakfast for the first time, I strolled up to the buffet and looked over all of the items. I wasn’t completely sure what some of the items were, so I asked the hostess if she would tell me what all the items were. When we came to the fish, she said, “Fish.” I asked her, “For breakfast?” She told me that it was common to have it for breakfast. I also questioned the beans and she smiled and told me to try them, so I did. They were good.

We also ate dinner there. For the first night, I had the Fish and Chips. Second night, a steak. All of the food was excellent. The wine was served chilled, just the way I like it and the lodging room was absolutely more than I had expected. The folks at the hotel couldn’t have treated us better. I think my final bill for the five nights was around 3 grand or so and worth every penny.

I would like to go back, but my wife said we were going somewhere else. We traveled quite a bit since my retirement. My wife is a retired nurse and she studied in France during her senior year in college, so we had to go there, of course. I wasn’t comfortable over there, but I did enjoy my trip to Normandy. At that time, there was no translator app, so I carried a pocket translator, which worked out OK.

I would still like to return to the U.K. The small villages outside of London really caught my eye. People are very friendly and willing to speak with you. One lady even invited us to stay for dinner. I asked her what was she having and she said Lamb. Uh, no thanks.
 


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