Hotel Etiquette

Question: Anyone from Omaha, NE?

Y'all, I've been SOOO busy with projects, work, window displays, etc... I'm so tired right now. If you missed my guest blogger post on Wearing Mascara a couple of weeks ago, I'm re-posting here. I've finally decided (or found the time) to write more on one of my favorite topics, Travel Etiquette. The latest topic is Hotel Etiquette.

I don’t have much to say about Hotel Etiquette. Just one simple rule to remember, you’re not the only person that checked into the hotel! The walls and floors are thin. For the record, I don’t stay in cheap, roach motels. I stay in business class hotels. My favorite chain is Marriott…Courtyard, Spring Hill Suites, Renaissance, etc…

My biggest pet peeve is when I’m woken up (or is it awoken?) in the early morning to kids running through the hallways or running in their room. I guess parents forget there are other people trying to sleep and not everybody wakes up at 5:30 AM. Grrr… but kids get to do whatever they want these days, right? Just kidding, but not really.

I’ve also woken up in hotels to extremely loud snoring and the neighbors having s*x. The snoring is forgivable but nobody wants to hear others having s*x. The most memorable moment was in Florence, Italy. My hotel neighbors starting screaming as loud as possible during the act. All of the sudden in the middle of “Oh, Oh, Ah, Uh, Yes” someone yelled, “OUCH!”

I know most bloggers know how to behave while traveling. My hope is that those that don’t will come across these blog posts someday.

I haven’t always behaved myself in hotels….

When my sister and I were young, 14 and 11, our family took a road trip. We had the entire crew… parents, grandparents, and the brother. For some reason, my dad decided to be cool. He let Jenn and me have our own hotel room. We were SOOO excited; this had never happened.

The next morning as Jenn and I were getting ready, my Pawpaw delivered some goodies from the continental breakfast. You know the drill… day old doughnuts, dry muffins, and thawed fruit (Holiday Inn Express). Jenn and I were sitting on one of the queen sized beds and sampling our goodies. I took a bite and said, “This is disgusting.” Next I threw my day old doughnut into the other queen sized bed. Then Jenn threw her continental breakfast into the bed. I'm such a good influence. :) We thought it was really funny but realized we didn’t want Pawpaw or anyone (especially my dad) to see what we had done. So, we threw the covers over the continental breakfast.

Don't be fooled, we weren't always innocent

As we sat in the room with our bags packed waiting for the family to knock on the door for departure, we became very bored. We decided to kill some time by jumping on the bed with the continental breakfast inside. You can see why we were never allowed to have our own hotel room. Ha.

Pawpaw knocked on the door and came in for our luggage. We tried to rush out the door but he insisted on double checking the room for forgotten personal items. Jenn and I told him we he already double checked the room; he went for it anyway. Jenn and I stood in silence as Pawpaw opened the dresser drawers, checked the bathroom and then he pulled back the covers on the other queen size bed. When he saw the mess inside he said, “Awl…” and that was it. We all piled into the family suburban. I was so scared he would tell my dad. If my dad knew what we had done to our continental breakfast, our days of having a private hotel room were done, forever.

The bad attitude years. Didn't we all have those years? Check out our stylish outfits.

Pawpaw never told my dad but apparently he told my Grandmaw, Mawmaw. As we headed down the road, my dad said, “Girls, how was the continental breakfast Pawpaw brought to your room?” In unison we said, “Good.” Mawmaw said, “They told me it was stomping good.”