Please read before your next hotel stay

In a previous career in the not so distant past, I was a sales manager that traveled throughout the United States. For 10 years, I was on the road averaging 3 to 4 hotel stays per week. From this time on the road I have seen it all and have some interesting points that I would like to share for those who also travel. Whether you are new to traveling or been doing it awhile, these are some very important tips to make your stays as enjoyable as possible.

Tip 1. Choosing your Hotel.
There are many choices out there where you can spend your hard earned money to rest your weary head. Some people look for the same kind of hotel. Some look for whatever is cheapest. Whatever your motivations, the best thing you can do is to accurately determine what is most important to you. Then make your choice based on that criteria. Is a clean room most important? Or one that has room service? Or a pool? What's important to you is top priority over what someone else thinks. Make sure you follow your needs in making your decision. What I will tell you, is that hotels of the same name are different in every city you stay. The Holiday Inn in Minneapolis is not the same as the Holiday Inn in Dallas. I know cause I've stayed at both of them. So be prepared to do a little research and make your decisions accordingly.

Tip 1a) Researching your hotel choices.
There are many ways to research potential hotels. You can use website searches, personal testimony from others you talk to, or your very own trial and error. When using websites, you have to be careful about the reviews that are listed for the hotels. Take this information as a general guideline but not as the "end all be all" authority on if a hotel is good or not. Also, some hotel managers go on these sites and anonymously review their own hotels to make them look better than they are. A good rule of thumb, look closely only at the bad reviews. Those are the mos likely written by actual guests that have previously stayed there. Don't necessarily believe everything in those reviews. But they are good sources of real world information.

Tip 1b) Hotel Amenities.
Large chain hotel brands are great places to start in choosing your lodging. In order to be a part of a large brand, the individual hotel is usually held to a standard of operating that gives customers a consistent experience between different locations. Some large brands will also have sub brands within the family. This allows the main hotel brand to offer different options to many different types of travelers by the various sub brand. Take for example Marriott. Marriott has many sub brands under its umbrella that offer different choices to travelers. If you are looking for a hotel with all the amenities such as on site restaurant and bar, then Marriott is a great choice. If you are not interested in those things but just want an economically nice room with a free continental breakfast, than Fairfield Inn and Suites by Marriott is a great choice.

Tip 1c) Hotel Rewards.
Most chain hotels offer a rewards program that gives its guests rewards points for staying at their hotels. Once you earn enough points, you can redeem these points for free future stays. I can tell you that I have used this option to pay for many free vacations. Its a wonderful perk and its worth looking into if you stay in enough hotels during the year. Depending on the hotel brand, after as little as 10 nights you can earn a free night. Other chains make you work more for it and it can be 25 to 30 nights before you earn a free night. Looking at the fine print on a lot of these rewards programs can help make your decisions on which one to utilize more than others. My recommendations is to sign up for the reward program at every brand you stay at. It is free to do so and you aren't losing out on potential free stays. If you don't travel that often, it might take a while to earn free night but you might as well give it a shot. Also, if you can try to stick to one or two brands exclusively, you will earn points faster than if you bounce around to a bunch or them. One note, some brands keep your account active no matter how long its been since you have stayed there. Some will close your account and void your points if you go 12 months without any activity with them. So be aware of this. You don't want to have a free night waiting to use for a future vacation and then find its gone because you waited too long. Personally the best rewards points brands I have experienced are Hyatt, Holiday Inn (Priority Club), and Marriott. The others are fine, but I have had better luck with those 3 personally.

Tip 1d) Hotel Age
The age of the hotel is a good indicator as to how clean and maintained the hotel is. Try to stay at newer hotels if possible. Or newly renovated hotels. The carpet and beds are in better shape and everything is cleaner. Not that the cleaning staffs don't do excellent work at older hotels, but you can't 100% clean a room from top to bottom every day. There just isn't time for them to do it. So the newer the property, the more assured you are that it is a clean room.

Tip 1e) Stay at Hotels that are geared toward the business traveler.
I suggest trying to stay at hotels that are geared more toward the business traveler. Even if you are traveling with your family, try to stay in places that offer what your family needs. But not necessarily cater to kids. Hotels that cater to families are more crowded, louder, dirtier, and just generally irritating to stay at. Hotels that serve a lot of business travelers have fewer people staying there at a time. Less people means, less congestion, quiet, and cleaner. Its just a fact. Also, most of these offer free internet. Not every hotel does so just be aware.

Tip 2 - Things to be aware of in your hotel once you are there.

Once you check into your room, there are certain things that I recommend doing. Some of it may be overkill in your minds, but I am only suggesting these things to keep you safe and enjoying your time.

1. Get a sense of the layout of the hotel and where everything is. Where is your room from your parking spot, from the nearest exits, and the elevators? It's a place you are unfamiliar with, so knowing where things are is just a good idea in case you need to know.
2. Check out your room thoroughly before bringing all your stuff into it. Make sure there is nothing wrong with the room. Make sure no one was smoking in it before you. Make sure its been cleaned properly and that nothing is damaged or appears missing. Hotels will charge you for room damage or stolen items. Make sure that you don't get charged for the previous guests mistakes.
3. Check out the bed and the mattress. Bed Bugs reared their ugly little heads a few years ago and you don't want to get mixed up with that. If you pull back the sheets to inspect the mattress, you can look for any issues or creepy crawlies to put your mind at ease. If you find something that you don't like, get a different room. If the 2nd room is just as bad as the first, its time to leave the hotel and get a refund and go elsewhere. You are the consumer. If you tell them right away after check in that the room is not satisfactory, they should help you out. If not, ask for the manager and don't take no for an answer. Don't ever stay somewhere you are worried about getting sick or picking up parasites from.
4. Take the bed spread/comforter off the bed and don't use it. Ask any hotel staffer and they will fully admit that these are not washed or changed regularly between guests. You don't need it so don't use it.
5. If there is an ice bucket in the room with the little plastic bag for the ice, use this plastic bag for the TV remote. The TV remote is by far the DIRTIEST thing in that room. Plus, if the previous guest was watching something on TV that they wouldn't want their mom to know about,...........if you get my drift, its just better to not directly touch the remote.
6. Don't drink from any glasses that aren't in plastic baggies that you have to tear into to use. Glass glasses that are at fancier hotels are notorious for not being cleaned properly. Its even been rumored that some housekeeping staff have used Windex on them to make them look extra shiny.
7. Don't walk non carpeted surfaces with bare feet. And don't walk anywhere outside your room with bare feet. This mostly applies to the bathroom and the tub or shower. When rooms are cleaned in between guests, the floors may be swept if they appear dirty. But are rarely mopped and disinfected. I learned the hard way about this as I dealt with warts on the bottom of my feet on 2 separate occasions from gross hotel room floors. After I learned where I got them, I started to either bring flip flops with me or I used towels in the bathroom to line the bathroom floor and the shower tub. And, thankfully, it never happened again. You never know who was in that room before you and what they were doing. Always protect yourself from germs and bugs.
8. If the Hotel doesn't have a restaurant but offers a continental breakfast, take a quick look at the breakfast area and determine what you are comfortable with eating. Fruit and cereal is pretty safe and easy. If they offer cooked food, take a look at the servers and cooks and the area they are working in and around. Hotels that don't have actual restaurants are not held to the same standards and regulations as those that do. If the person bringing out the eggs and bacon looks kind of sketchy, or isn't wearing plastic gloves, maybe go for the Cheerios instead.
9. Always check your room before leaving. I've lost more phone chargers than I can count over the years. So always make sure you don't leave anything behind.
10. Always check your bill at check out. Its always easier to fix a mistake in person with the manager than to do it over the phone later. Mistakes happen. Just address them early and fix them.

This is not an all inclusive list. But following these rules will help you have a better stay.