Travel guru Peter Greenberg shares three useful and unexpected questions that can make a huge difference when booking a hotel room. Inside, learn how to avoid digs next to the inevitable construction and instead score the room with a shower strong enough to clean a stinky elephant.
The three questions:
- 1. Ask how close your room is to the construction. Hotels are constantly undergoing renovations, so it’s safe to assume that your is no exception.
- 2. Listen Rapunzel, ask for a room below the eight floor. Firefighters aren’t scared of height, but their hoses can’t reach past the eighth floor.
- 3. Ask for a room on the same floor as the booster pumps. They make your shower strong, like Ukraine.
Tips on Choosing the Right Hotel Room [Peter Greenberg]
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I don’t plan on staying in the hotel while they’re fighting the fire. The higher up I am the less chance I’ll run into a stream of firefighters running up the stairwell while I’m running down.
#4 be sure to ask when they last washed the bedspread in your room.
Doesn’t this dork know that the front desk people know less about a hotel than just about anyone else? They spend their entire day AT THE FRONT DESK! They know how to check you in but that’s about it. A bellman in a good hotel can get you the room you want since he’s been in every one. If you don’t like the room, tell him and let him know what you’re looking for. If he can get you a room you like give him a good tip and if it’s a hotel you go to a lot remember him for the future. If he remembers you as a good tipper he’ll be sure to get you a good room.
If you’re paranoid about staying in a hotel above the eight floor maybe you should pack 150 of static 10 mm rope, a harness and a rappelling device. Or if it’s a really tall hotel pack some BASE jumping gear and parachute to safety.
These tips are worthless.
The idiot needed to talk to a fireman before needlessly scaring his viewers. Fear not, enjoy the skyline from the upper floors. You need only look for sprinklers in halls and rooms.
1) High-rise fires are NEVER fought from the outside, and this is why buildings have all those weird-looking pipes in the stairwells. They allow the fire hoses to be deployed where needed. See this animation [www.usatoday.com] for an overview of how these pipes work.
2) Sprinkler systems are your friend. If you are in a modern building with sprinklers, you are assured of not being in “The Towering Inferno”. Sprinklers put most fires out before the first firetruck arrives in the overwhelming majority of high-rise fires.
3) Since the National Fire Protection Association started tracking fires in the 1920s, there has NEVER been multiple deaths in a building due to a fire with a fully functioning sprinkler system.
3a) 9/11s World Trade Center was not counted in the above, as the planes destroyed the sprinkler systems when the impact took out the “services core” where the pipes ran.
4) Water pressure is not as much an issue for shower pressure as the “energy-saving flow-limiting” devices built into nearly every showerhead sold these days.
About the only worth I can give to the tips is the fire department one. A fire COULD delay rescue and if the ground hoses can reach to your floor the likelihood of a fire spreading in those areas would be less. After all, if the fire fighters have to get to the 12th floor to battle the fire that high you better hope they CAN get there.
That said, if you are that paranoid you better not cross the street in a city. You should opt for the dirt lane road in rural Wyoming because there’s less cars.
I don’t travel much, but if I am with my family I simply tell them that I am traveling with my family and I have young children. I would like to be as little a problem to your guests as possible so if you have something in an area a little less populated that would be good.
Boom, quiet room, no problems. Of course my children MIGHT get that loud, but it’s unlikely.
@jfischer: What about the fire in the MGM I believe in Vegas in he early 1980′s?
Here are the three questions I always ask at check-in:
1. How close is my room to the obese guy with apnea?
2. Which floor’s balconies are most suited for toddler-dangling?
3. And which floor has the booster pumps? Booster pumps make my buttocks look uber-svelte.
That is one of the least user-friendly websites I’ve visited recently.
Is it April 1st already?
After my family’s last stay in DC, I’m tempted to add “If you have any *ahem* regular short-term female guests who bring in brand new acquaintances, could you make sure that we’re not going to be woken up by their 2 AM performance?”. And no, this was not a skeev place.
Video “articles”, do not want.
@mrmysterious:
Where the MGM Grand fire started (not in the hotel itself), there were no sprinklers. Also, the alarm system was only manually activated, and was not able to be activated from the casino/restaurant.
um, where is this idea that their hoses can’t reach above the eighth floor? you mean the outside hoses. Because inside the hotel there should be hose connections every 100′. I’m not sure i would rely on the outside hose for indoor protection – I believe that is mainly to save the skin of the building, and to prevent the fire from “jumping”.
@SkyeBlue: I had guests in the next room start a poker party at 1 am. It took three calls to security to get them quieted down.
@horkles: Yeah, actually, it has become a bit of a pattern. For some reason I always seem to be there on the day they’re testing the alarms ; ) None of them have been an actual fire though, either a test or some kid pulling the alarm.
I probably should have said “most” because I’d say it’s about 4 out of 5. But I also counted the hotel I worked at but never stayed in.
@jfischer: Thank you. I was hoping somebody with more knowledge on building codes/firefighting would be able to elaborate.
I’m absolutely baffled that people would think that just because a standard fire truck hose wouldn’t reach that there’s actually an increase in danger. Firemen and engineers think of these things before they build tall buildings. It’s their job.
As a firefighter, thats ridiculous. All commercial buildings have to be fitted with standpipes (thats what those funny looking pipes in the stairwells are called) which allow water to be pumped up to the tops of even the tallest buildings. If you absolutely need a fire-related rule try staying at the 10th floor or below, as almost all ladder trucks in the USA can only reach up 100′. But even then you really don’t need to worry.
Just one question: If I turn on a blacklight in my hotel room, will it resemble a Jackson Pollock masterpiece?
i doubt the person taking reservations knows where the booster pumps are
@CharlieSays: Ahhaha aha good one- I saw that news report also.
The question I would ask the hotel is ” Is there are visiting group of church/ sports / high school/ middle school students staying for an event?
Nothing worse than the room next to the stairs with the kids running up and down to the indoor pool opening/closing the door all night long. This also make the pool facilities worthless as they are filled with the kids during the evenings.
If you are staying for two or three day, or longer, make sure you ask a desk clerk who did not check you in for a key to your room, and see if they ask you for identification. If a clerk will give you a key to your room without seeing a driver’s license, state identification card, or passport, they will give a key to anyone who asks them for one.