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Noisy Neighbors
The Travel Critic · April 12, 1999

The sound of gunshots jarred Dave Vallett from a slumber early one morning in a hotel in Rome, N.Y.

The explosions seemed to be coming from a room that belonged to the members of a men's softball team. So Vallett called the receptionist, who promised to check out the commotion. When the shots continued, he phoned again, pleading with the clerk.

"He said, 'We'll let security know about it," says the Burlington, Vt., computer analyst. But the shots didn't stop. Finally as dawn approached, he remembers, "the explosions abated."

A few hours later, during checkout, he was both relieved and angered to find out that the popping sounds were cherry bombs being set off by the partying softball team. The property manager shrugged off his complaints, agreeing to deduct only a few dollars from his bill for the sleepless night.

An isolated incident? Not these days, with occupancy rates pushing all-time highs. The average daily occupancy rate was 72.6 percent in 1998, according to lodging analysts PKF Consulting in San Francisco. However, rates in major cities where business travelers go were significantly higher. Boston, for example, had an 80 percent occupancy rate last year. So did San Francisco. In Chicago, it was 76 percent. And New York's was 82 percent.

Clashes between frequent travelers and fun-loving tourists are becoming more common as rooms at the inn become more scarce.

Pam Lontos, a motivational speaker based in Orlando, Fla., got stuck in the second half of a suite at the Las Vegas Hilton during a recent broadcasting convention. The first half was hosting a reception for delegates.

"The noise started at 11 p.m.," she recalls. "There was a lot of talking and it kept getting louder. It was like a low rumble, with occasional laughing. I couldn't sleep."

Lontos phoned the front desk and explained her predicament, adding, "you need to move me to another room."

Around midnight, three bellmen showed up at her door and moved her to a different floor.

"I found that the key is how you speak to the staff," she says. "You don't get mad, because they won't want to help you. You tell them what you need. You have to give them a reason for why you need it. For example, I said to them, 'I have an early morning speech and I need your help.' And I got what I wanted."

Hotels aren't entirely oblivious to the problem. At the Hotel Windsor in Philadelphia, for instance, business travelers and families each have a designated floor, which usually keeps executives from losing sleep because of a screaming infant or an amorous couple.

Ditto for the Westin Seattle, which sets aside several levels for its preferred guests. "Odds are that most guests who stay on these floors are not traveling with their family," hotel spokeswoman Valerie O'Neil said. Wyoming's Blair Hotels chain even uses brick partitions to physically separate its business rooms from the rest of the property to ensure that frequent guests aren't disturbed.

But the measures don't always work, particularly when a property is booked solid. That's when a little creativity can help. When the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel recently hosted a record company executive, it was operating at capacity, says sales manager Mike McCoy. "We reserved a room for him on the business floor, as we usually do for corporate guests. However, occupancy was high and we had a family of four in the room next door," he says.

The executive, who was used to staying up late and sleeping until noon, was awoken by the kids early the next morning. But with no free rooms, McCoy couldn't move the family.

Solution: The Roosevelt offered the family free tickets to an amusement park "so they would get out of the hotel." McCoy adds, "the cost was insignificant to us. Losing [the executive's] account would have been much more detrimental."

At least some hoteliers know who butters their bread. It's a shame most of us can't abandon the property that puts us in a room next to partying teens or noisy newlyweds.

Fact is, a majority of frequent travelers are trapped with a given hotel chain thanks to corporate travel policy. And despite all the rhetoric and creativity, the hotels know they've got business travelers exactly where they want them. The only solution, as I see it, is to turn the tables on the innkeepers.

Follow Lontos' advice, but if that doesn't work, become the proverbial squeaky wheel. Squeak loudly.

Call the front desk until you're moved or the offending noisemaker is removed. It's the only reasonable solution I can think of.

Christopher Elliott is a travel commentator and author of A Bridge to Nowhere: A Year in the Florida Keys. All e-mailed questions may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion.