My second rant about annoying things unrelated to F&B concerns – this time, it’s bathrobes and lighting (read the first one here).

Bathrobes: Please would all the executive housekeepers of hotels that still make their bathrobes look pretty by tying them up in a “decorative but impossible to undo” knot, stand naked in a bathroom and time how long it takes them to unravel said knot and climb into the bathrobe while room service is pounding on the door with breakfast. My current record is about 4.5 minutes. I can hear them all sniggering at me… “Gotcha!”

Lighting: Before any lighting designer finalizes the design of any guest room and bathroom, please would they sleep in the room (with their partner) and get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. There is a recent trend to have the bathroom either open to the bedroom or behind glass (I assume to allow your partner the opportunity to laugh at you as you attempt to figure out which of the tiny bottles in the shower is the shampoo!).

When staying in one of these trendy rooms recently, the designer had very kindly labeled the light switches going into the bathroom. However, as a first-time user and not being able to read the switches in the dark, I hit the nearest one only to light up the entire bedroom and bathroom like a football stadium. For some reason my wife did not see the funny side of this. Lighting designers would have been punching the air!