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Top 15 most annoying things about some hotels

Top 15 most annoying things about some hotels

I really enjoy checking into hotels and having a good stay. Finding that everything is as you like it is important. It’s your home away from home for a few days, so you want a relaxing time and some time to enjoy the facilities of your chosen hotel.

However, from time to time hotel stays are not 100% perfect and I have listed some areas where hotels have let me down in the past in my Top 15 most annoying things about some hotels or, to put it another way the “Things which annoy me about some hotels” list …

Noisy or non-functioning air conditioning

Worse than a window not opening, a hotel which advertises air conditioning and it barely manages to keep the room at 20C or rattles like a coffee grinder when you have it on. Some of the best Air Conditioning was in the US, where you could have the room at 10C if you so wanted.

 

Getting a smelly room

Sometimes you can be very unlucky and end up going into a hotel room and getting an unwanted smell. This could be a cleaning problem or it could be something like the previous occupant being a smoker or taking food back to the room the night before.

 

No provision of parking or local car park which is then validated

This is a real problem for me. If I’m staying at a hotel and there is no hotel parking the least I expect is that the hotel has a deal running with the local NCP or city car park and therefore validate the car parking for you.

Some of the best examples of this recently were at Future Hotel Bristol and The Bristol Hotel, both of which validated our car parking. I would return to these 2 hotels as a result!

 

Badly maintained bathrooms

Please enjoy our bathroom but ignore the rusty tap, the missing shower head and the mould around the tiling… also if the toilet takes 30 mins to refill that’s normal …. NO it’s not ! Having a well maintained bathroom is vital to an enjoyable stay.

 

No free WiFi in rooms / Crappy WiFi

There is nothing worse than checking in and then accessing your smartphone or tablet only to find out that there is a charge for WiFi. You may have paid a lot for your room, yet you are not given free Wireless Internet.

Even worse is when you have chosen the hotel based on the Free Wifi promise, you check in and the WiFi times out or fails to load even the most basic web pages. If I’m paying for an expensive hotel room I don’t want to have to pay $20 or €10 for WiFi.
Free WiFi is something I now look for in a hotel, if it’s not free I won’t stay.

 

Tea and Coffee Facilities

You come back after a day out and fell like a cup of tea for 2 only to find that you have to call reception to get more tiny UHT milk packets delivered to your room. Even worse is when no tea/coffee facilities are provided.

 

Finding things left from the last visitor

There is nothing worse than seeing evidence of the last visitor in your room, like a sweet wrapper under a chair etc. Once in Australia, there was visible evidence in my hotel that the pillows had not been changed. In that room, the evidence pointed to the previous visitor having a bad cold … at least I hope that’s what it was! (we swiftly left that hotel)

 

Housekeeping ignoring ‘Do Not Disturb’ signs

If you are in need of some rest and just don’t want to be disturbed, you hang the little do not disturb sign outside the door… some time later you get a knock or a “Hello, House Keeping” – Why? It’s on the door …. Do Not Disturb!

In one hotel we were disturbed exactly 1 hour after check-in … asking “Do you need more towels?” — what could I have done in 1 hour which would result in requiring more towels?

 

No electrical plug sockets near the bed

This is very annoying for iPhone charging especially if you use your smartphone as an alarm clock or radio… or indeed if you log onto Facebook at 2 am which some people do. Having a plug near the bed or bedside locker should be standard.

 

Uncomfortable beds or pillows

One of the things I really hate is a hotel which markets the room as having a double bed which is actually 2 twin beds stuck together and you end up falling down the gap. That bed split drives me mad.

 

Windows that will not open at all

I understand for health and safety you have to prevent people from opening the windows too much but when they don’t open at all it really feels claustrophobic – it’s nice to let some fresh air into your room!

 

A TV… with 4 channels

So we have a TV, let’s have a look BBC1, BBC2, UTV and a Local Channel … that’s all?
You may as not have it at all! I’ll read a book!

In the age of amazing technology, you should have more than 4 channels.

 

Keycards not working

There is nothing worse than returning to your room on the 23rd floor to find that your keycard no longer works. You get the red light and you end up having to return to reception. They usually ask “was this near your phone or other bank cards?” … that shouldn’t be the point. In the age of AI and advanced technology, a key card shouldn’t just de-programme!

 

Complicated light switches

There have been some hotels which have had the most unusual lighting systems. There were so many light switches in one hotel, I had to click each one to find out what each one did. If you click the wrong one you end up waking any guest in the room up with every light in the room suddenly turning on.

 

Do you have anything to add to this list?

What was the worst thing you ever saw in a hotel? (Please don’t mention names)

Stupid “Who Viewed My Profile” Apps on Facebook sharing Data

Stupid “Who Viewed My Profile” Apps on Facebook sharing Data

I get very irate when I see peoples gullibility by clicking apps to see who has been viewing your Facebook Profile. Thousands of people have been attracted to webpages and Facebook apps which claim to be able to give you an analytical insight into who is viewing their Facebook profile. These apps have the potential for Facebook sharing data with the 3rd parties. 

OMG See who is viewing your Facebook Profile

You may have seen many messages such as “OMG… I can’t believe this actually works! Now you really can see who views your profile!” or “See who views your Facebook profile in real-time!” When it comes to Facebook sharing Data, they don’t, so all you are doing is sharing your email address and your friends list to marketing companies (and maybe worse).

See whos viewing your Facebook Profile - Facebook profile apps

These are ALL Scams – Please do not click the links to these Facebook profile apps, as you cannot see who views your Facebook profile.

Facebook Official Statement (via their Privacy section)

Can I know who’s viewing my profile (timeline) or how often it’s being viewed?
No, Facebook does not provide a functionality that enables you to track who is viewing your profile (timeline), or parts of your profile (timeline), such as your photos. Third party applications also cannot provide this functionality. Applications that claim to give you this ability will be removed from Facebook for violating policy. You can report applications that provide untrustworthy experiences.

What do these apps do?

To gain access to the secret behind the scenes data of who is viewing your Facebook profile you may be asked for personal information, you may need to take surveys and you may even be asked for your mobile number (which could be used for God knows what).

The information from these Apps is not true

I know of one Facebook user who died in 2011 but the Facebook profile is still active. This person was listed as recently viewing and being on of the “Top 20 viewers” of another person’s profile. This person was Tagged in the photo as having viewed the other persons profile; which is not only upsetting for the family of the deceased but also very bad behaviour from the writers of the App.

These apps determine the people who viewed the other peoples profiles by randomly selecting people from the friends list (which the third-party app now has, as it was granted access by the person who tried the Who’s looking at your profile app)

Who views your facebook Profile - Who is viewing your profile on Facebook? Facebook App

Staying Safe on Facebook – These Facebook Profile Apps Don’t Work as there is no way Facebook sharing Data that allows you to see this information!

These “Who’s viewing your Facebook Profile” app  scams don’t work. These Facebook apps are not malware, spyware or clickjacking, purely gullibility of Facebook users.

Think about what you are doing,

(1) you are giving the Facebook App access to your profile

(2) This app now has access to your data

(3) the app can write on your wall when ever it wants.

 

Share this News with others!

Please share this page on Facebook to warn your Facebook friends about these stupid and unproductive apps. There are share links below for Facebook, Twitter and other Social Networks.

Best Twitter iPhone Apps

Best Twitter iPhone Apps

People are now twittering and tweeting everywhere from the office, train station to the restaurant and airport. Are you looking for the Best Twitter iPhone Apps? The emergence of mobile technology allows people to tweet quickly and easily. Below are listed some handy iPhone Apps for using Twitter all of which are freely available on the iTunes App Store.

Twitter

Twitter iPhone AppsThe official Twitter iPhone app has all the features you might expect, tweeting, latest posts, lists, access to your profile and favourites and some other extras. This is the twitter app I use most, mainly because it is the official app. Latest Version is 3.0.3 – Size 3.9 MB Price : Free

Tweetdeck

The Tweetdeck iPhone app allows you to have Facebook and Twitter on the same app, saves you having to access 2 different iPhone apps. Some nice features and if you want to have a fully integrated app this is the one for you, tweet and facebook on the one app. I still use this on occasion and it is a handy tool for Facebook and Twitter users. Price : Free

Echophon

This is one I installed a while ago and was my original twitter app before moving to tweetdeck and moving then to Twitter App. It’s a bit clunky and I found it a bit slow to use but that was over 7 months ago … so if anyone has used Echophon add a comment below. However having reviewed the latest app on iTunes I think this has recently been updated. Price : Free Feel free to add your comments and review of the Best Twitter iPhone Apps….

In subsequent years some of the best iPhone apps that I have on my phone (at the time of updating this piece I am on iOS17 on an iPhone 11). The following apps are the ones I would use most during my week and ones that I really enjoy using;

  • FlightRadar24 – for tracking aircraft overhead.
  • Scrabble (the official app) – good app but some of the words that are in the dictionary are not in the apps version of the dictionary.
  • Action Movie – you can add special effects into movies such as explosions (just a bit of fun)
  • and of course all my streaming apps such as Netflix, Disney+ and AppleTV and apps like Dropbox and Google Translate

Facebook Password Reset Confirmation Scam

If you are getting an email which is from “Facebook Security” with the subject line of “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Message.” – please delete this message as it contains a virus. First off, this has nothing to do with Facebook – the owners and company of Facebook are constantly striving to keep people aware of the latest security issues.

The full body of the email is shown below – my anti-virus system found and quarantined the virus before the payload could be activated but there may be people out there who don’t know this. Please be aware this is a Facebook Password Reset Confirmation Scam and you should not follow or engage with this email. There may also be variants of this email so be vigilant and remember Facebook will never email you in this style or asking for this information. 

Dear user of facebook,

Because of the measures taken to provide safety to  our clients, 
your password has been changed.

You can find your new password  in attached document.

Thanks,
Your Facebook.

Viruses found in the attached files.
The file  Facebook_password_Nr4397.zip: Virus found FakeAlert. 
The attachment was moved to  the Virus Vault.

Firstly Facebook will never email you with “Dear user of facebook,” – who ever the spammer was who decided to try emailing with “Dear user of facebook,” is thick. The same goes for emails from AIB, Bank of Ireland, PayPal or TSB – they will never email you with”Dear Valued Customer” … if you see this in an email delete it. Secondly the line ” Because of the measures taken to provide safety to our clients” – what measures?? If you want to know about Facebook security then visit Facebook’s Security section at http://www.facebook.com/security .

Be careful with this one and ensure you have an anti-virus system on your PC and that it is up to date. This virus is called FakeAlert and is a trojan which displays misleading fake alerts to entice the user into buying a product to “repair” malware problems. FakeAlert can come in other emails – not just Facebook, so always treat attachments from unknown sources with caution. There are a lot of scams out there and I’m going to put some more info on scams on the blog in the coming weeks.

M9 Waterford to Danesfort Motorway to Open with a Protest

The M9 Waterford to Danesfort motorway will open at 11am tomorrow morning (Monday 21st March) but will be overshadowed by protests against the limiting of the service of the search and rescue helicopter based in Waterford to operating in daylight hours. It is hoped that traffic will be flowing by 2pm, and the M9 will bypass Mullinavat, Ballyhale, Stoneyford and Knocktopher – taking up to 25 minutes off the average journey from Kilkenny.

The protests mentioned above relate to the helicopter which is based at Waterford Airport and provides search & rescue cover to the Irish Sea and Atlantic Coasts around Waterford, Wexford and beyond. If somebody is in difficulty at 9:30pm just off Tramore Bay, they will have to wait 40 minutes for a helicopter to come from Shannon instead of waiting 2 minutes for one from Waterford Airport.

A Facebook Group called “Save 24hr Search & Rescue Helicopter Cover in South-East” is now available to Join – Click here to Join the Facebook Group

It will be interesting to see what Noel Dempsey has to say on the visit the South East – the area where the essential helicopter service is based. Some text from the facebook groups page says that the Irish Government saved a measly €1m euro by not having a 24 hour service – so lives lost are basically ok as long as we can have savings and two days after making this decision they spent the equivalent money traveling around the world in the Government Jet for St.Patricks Day and filling their stomachs.

There is an on-line petition which you can sign to Save the South-Easts 24hr Search & Rescue Helicopter Cover : http://www.petitiononline.com/sar01/

It is good to see our motorway link coming to the south-east at last but it is the government giving with one hand and taking away with the other. There are plenty of other things they could save money on … but a life saving service should not be one of them.