Hotel Horror Stories: Hotel vs Bed and Breakfast
We’ve all heard hotel horror stories, and seen those negative reviews online citing bad experiences people have had staying at hotels and motels.
It’s hard to imagine that everyone would always have a great experience dealing with any type of business, but when it comes to a comparison between hotel vs. bed and breakfast guest satisfaction, the gap is huge. Hotels seem to inflame the ire of weary travelers; while bed & breakfast guests, tend to come away from the experience refreshed and much happier than their hotel/motel counterparts.
Considering comfort and hospitality is the business of hotels and motels, the fact that they are far less likely to make you feel comfortable, secure, and happy is truly mystifying. Yet, complaints abound, particularly against the larger chains, with angry folks voicing their displeasure to anyone who will listen.
Meanwhile, the warmth and personal touches provided by the average bed and breakfast are winning hearts and minds. More travelers have come to accept a B&B stay as their default accommodation of choice.
We thought quite a bit about why so many people are so unhappy with hotels. Logically, the larger number of visitors a hotel receives makes it tougher to make them all happy. But in reality, the scale of their guest bookings should make them more focused on guest satisfaction — yet it does not. Hotels are simply too concerned with their own volume requirements to give individual guests the love and attention they desire and deserve.
Common Hotel Guest Complaints
Luckily, the most common hotel guest complaints listed below are issues that bed and breakfast guests very rarely experience.
Sourced from WikiTravel
Employee behavior / Rudeness: Staff are often rude to customers who make unusual requests. Some staff members are rude to all guests. Others treat certain guests with disdain due to their personal prejudices of certain groups of people or an individual. Rudeness may range from the outright refusal to help or serve the guest who has a rightful expectation to the service to sheer coldness while at the same time performing his/her duties.
Incompetence: Hotel employees perform duties unprofessionally or not in the manner expected. The result is substandard service in a variety of possible ways. Examples may include poorly performed monetary transactions, rooms not serviced to expected standards, or a variety of other problems.
Invasion of privacy: You expect the housekeeping service to clean your room and make your beds up. You do not expect them to snoop unnecessarily. And unfortunately, there are some nosy hotel workers out there. And while their intents can be criminal, this is not always the case. Regardless, visitors felt violated.
Theft of belongings: Personal belongings of guest missing. This can occur if stolen by an employee who has access to the room (e.g. housekeeper) or a non-employee who burglarizes the room via forced entry or opportunity. Though not common, this can be prevented by locking valuables in safe (if provided), hiding valuables where unlikely place to be found, or taking them with you when you leave room (though this may place items at risk for theft while outside room).
Dirty rooms: The room, or parts thereof, are not truly clean, and can appear disgusting to the guest. This may include the floor or carpet, the wall, the upholstery, the linens, the bathroom, or the kitchen facilities, just to name a few.
Unpleasant odors: The room exhibits an unpleasant smell to the guest. Often, the room smells like cigarette smoke, which is unpleasant for a non-smoker. Separate smoking and non-smoking rooms are supposed to alleviate this problem, though properties vary in how good of a job they do at this.
These are just a few of the most common complaints by guests that should have stayed at a B&B instead of a hotel!
Hotel vs Bed and Breakfast: The Last Word
At Louisiana Cajun Mansion, we, like most bed and breakfasts, are really into the details. We live and breathe hospitality. We understand that you expect those little extras, like personal service from a person willing to make sure your stay is a 5-star experience. Our amenities are second-to-none and we’re proud of that.
When comparing the perception of guest experiences, one of the questions asked was, “Is there any reason why you would not stay at a bed and breakfast vs a hotel?”
Most folks replied that they assumed the cost was too high. Of course, when you compare the costs, Bed and Breakfast stays are cheaper then Hotel stays. Once you compare the facts, there really is no comparison. Hotel or Bed and Breakfast? The decision is easy!
Finally, in closing we’d like to leave you with this amazing info-graphic from the folks at Bed & Breakfast dot com.
Come to the Mansion and let us pamper you.
One stay, and you’ll never go back to impersonal, cookie-cutter rooms and the plastic atmosphere of hotels.