Thursday, October 19, 2006

Thursday Thirteen # 12

13 Things I Like About Hotels

1) Big Fluffy Beds and Perfectly Weighted Comforters - The W's Heavenly Bed is the best, hands down. I don't think they use down; I think it's closer to what the Europeans use. I'm sure IKEA would have something similar.

2) Blissful Silence - With their insulated walls and windows, floors far above street level, and big fluffy bedding, hotels are the only place I can sleep without my earplugs. It's like being in a desensory tank; something I think I'd really find relaxing.

3) Room Service - Who doesn't like coffee and freshly prepared food delivered to them at their whim? The Four Seasons makes it fancy with silver trays and utensils and huge pots of coffee.

4) Big Bath Tubs - I'm not sure if I've mentioned the issues with the bathtub in my apartment? Suffice it to say, for now, that luxurious baths are not an everyday occasion. However, hotels have enormous bathtubs and are the perfect setting for relaxing bubble baths.

5) Big Fluffy Bathrobes - I have a frayed purple bathrobe at home that I use on occasion. It's no match to the soft, white robes the hotels provide for guests. In the B&B that Raj and I stayed in in Victoria they also provided nice fluffy robes, I think from Nautica.

6) Big Fluffy Towels - I'm sure you're starting to see a pattern here. Big, fluffy and soft all translates into an indulgent, pampering experience.

7) Television For Me And Me Alone - As much as I love snuggling with Raj watching TV, it''s nice every now and then to have a TV devoted solely to my viewing pleasure. I'm sure he feels the same way when I'm not around asking him to mute football or flip back and forth between his sports and my reality shows.

8) Sleep Enhancing Details - Hotels have made perfecting the sleep experience of their patrons an art. For example, the Four Seasons has a bedside book about how to enhance the sleep experience, along with a relaxation CD to help you wind down at the end of the day. I most certainly am in need of such reminders and instructions as to how relax.

9) On-Site Gyms - I love having a treadmill nearby. By "nearby" I mean within the building in which I sleep. Not that I've used it yet! But I'm hopeful that I will as it's only a few floors below me. They also let you rent movies while on the treadmill. What could be better? When I grow up, I want a treadmill in my house.

10) Courtesy Cars - At the Four Seasons they provide courtesy cars to take guests anywhere they need to go in downtown Houston for no charge. It's a nice change from cabs, and it gives you the sense for how it must feel to have a limo at your beck and call. Not a bad life.

11) Business Centers - They're great for when you're actually on business and have saved my tush numerous times by provided me with last minute copies or fedex-ing my banker boxes. When you're not on business, they're a comfortable place to check email, make plane reservations, and print out any needed confirmations.

12) Cute Seating Nooks - Perfect for curling up with a good book, your work, or sipping tea and thinking.

13) Clean, Pristine, Perfectly Organized Space - I often think how awesome it would be, and how clarifying and soothing for my mind, if I could keep my apartment as nice and organized as hotels always seem to be able to do. During a brief stint when I had a cleaning person come every 2 weeks to clean my apartment (before I moved in with Raj), I used to look forward delightedly to the day that my apartment would be cleaned. I would come home, peek through the door expectantly, and then drift around the apartment admiring how neat and organized everything looked. I wish I could do that!


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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man, I am so with you on #13!!!

Anonymous said...

The thirteenth one was my favorite too. A hotel is the epitomy of absolutely perfect organization....though the atmosphere does matter. A hotel's sparseness can make it a thing of beauty or the nightmare stay that you never stop regretting.

Anonymous said...

Love those! Add a 14th -- appreciating home when you return. :)

Anonymous said...

i love hotels....i always looks forward to the bed, sheets the whole experience

Unknown said...

I've been wondering about the comforters too! Some are so perfect!! LOL

Anonymous said...

i love everything about hotels but the bed covers. ew.

Anonymous said...

Yup, I'm all about the Heavenly Bed too. . .
Happy Thursday!
Alyson

Girlie said...

I love those in a hotel too!

Anonymous said...

I guess I've not stayed at nice enough hotels. I've never had a robe. The places I've been (not even motels) have thin walls, hard mattresses, thin tiny towels and tiny tubs/showers.

Thanks for visiting my TT!

Colleen Gleason said...

Hmmm....I usually have to use my earplugs at hotels.

But I agree with most of the other things on your list...those big fluffy beds and comforters they have now at the Westins are fabulous.

Candy Minx said...

I Love staying ina hotel...if I won the lottery I would just mobve into a hotel ah...live like a rock star!

Tracy said...

I love the fluffy white bathrobes, too!

Anonymous said...

Hotels are definitely fun in limited doses! I love the on-site gyms and big bath tubs as well. Oh and the cable TV since I don't have cable at this time...

Anonymous said...

I don't travel much but all that big and fluffy and comfy stuff sounds heavenly!

Anonymous said...

I think it would be awesome to live in a hotel.

R'acquel said...

I have an intense love affair with hotels and agree with all the above. I wish i could afford to live in them, or have a lifestyle where my work revolved hopping about in them to & fro.

Instead, i make peace with trying to turn my home into a hotel and try to organise the odd weekend retreat away with my husband at a 5 star spot.

We fell in love with the giant fluffy towels & bathrobes, so we got some for our home years ago.

Clean, pristine & organised. {sighs} Yeah baby - one day, soon. I want it so much that i know i'm gonna get there.

Nice to see someone else digging them as much as i do.

Le laquet said...

Big bath tubs ~ yum! I shower at home but if there's a tub big enough to float in :o)