The best and worst hotel amenities

Guest takes room key card at check-in desk of hotel, close up

What if you had a talking toilet at your hotel? Or a luggage weigher? Or complimentary iPhones?

All this and more has been uncovered in a recent survey of over 5000 guests of a hotel in Queenstown.

The Rees Hotel, in preparation for launching its new luxury ‘Rees Residences, wanted to see what former guests thought and surveyed 5000 previous guests, who didn’t hold back on their feedback.

General Manager Mark Rose said the survey showed the hotel what their guests really wanted.

“So often we think we know what people want, but when you actually go to the market you actually find out – and some of the results were surprising,” he said.

The hotel’s multiple choice snap survey, with one qualitative question, was mostly completed by employed women in their forties who shared their favourite and not so favourite top picks.

Gen Y followed by Baby Boomers were the next highest respondents, whilst guests aged older than 75 or those travellers younger than 21 submitted the least number of responses. The majority travel offshore at least annually and were not shy sharing feedback about the strangest, weirdest or funniest amenity that they’ve discovered in their hotel room.

And if you’ve ever taken home a sneaky shampoo or moisturiser (don’t lie, we know you have), you’re not alone – almost 65 per cent of respondents fessed up to taking hotel amenities home with them.

But what were the overall faves?

Top hotel and room amenities combined and ranked in order were:

free high speed Wi-Fi
complimentary breakfast
car parking
a room with a view
daily housekeeping.

The worst? The in-room Bible (no surprise there), turn down service and complimentary magazine selection.

And finally: the weirdest.

From brand spanking new ashtrays in a non-smoking hotel room to “a very scary looking large knife which was apparently a letter opener”, survey respondents had tons to say about the most odd hotel amenities.

People had found condoms in the mini bar, fresh rose petals everywhere, and 1980’s style shower caps. One guest of a hotel even found a fully operational “bread maker which contained freshly baked bread” on arrival.

Musical bathrooms were a common theme in Japan hotels due to memories of toilet rolls that played music every time you used them and singing toilet seats.

One traveller praised the luggage weigher her hotel had, and complimentary yoga mats and iPhones to take with you from the hotel for GPS maps also proved super popular.

So what will The Ress Hotel do with all this new information? Give everyone in-room Bibles, obviously.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Hotel Amenities queenstown The Ress Hotel