My Top 10 Travel Pet Peeves From The Travel Blogger

Surly Airline Employees, Hotel Resort Fees And Other Annoying Things About Traveling

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Travel Blogger

I’m a happy, easy-going traveler. Most of the time.

There are times, tho, when certain factors make me perk up and bring out the Leo in me.  Which is why I have a list of these Top 10 travel pet peeves.

1.) Hotel Resort Fees (Especially When Those Fees Are Automatically Added To The Cost Of The Room)

If hotels are going to charge you this ridiculous fee, just do  it; include it in the price of the room and we’ll never know about it. But to add it on as a resort fee – and give me no choice in the matter – drives me crazy.

And if you are going to charge me a “resort” fee, then give me a choice of what I get with it. Like cocktails instead of towels at the pool (I’ll take  down from towels from the room) or the fitness center. If I want to work out while traveling, I’ll step outside and go for a run.

2.) Surly Airport Gate Agents & Flight Attendants

Nothing gets a trip off to a bad start like having to deal with airline employees sporting an attitude.

I once flew from LAX to Cabo on American Airlines for a wedding and the flight was four hours late. I missed the rehearsal dinner and I asked the flight attendant for a couple drinks as compensation. She looked at me as if I was a dirty napkin that landed at her feet. It took a full day to cool the steam that was coming out of my head.

3.) Flight Delays When It’s The Airline’s Fault And They Don’t Apologize For Being Late

Of my four Delta flights over Christmas this year, three were late. Not once did anyone with the crews go on the loudspeaker to apologize. They didn’t even acknowledge it, which I interpreted to mean they either did not care that people like me were two hours late to meet the family or missed a ride went I got back home, or this was just a standard part of their cattle-car travel experience.

4.) Super-Cramped Airline Seats

It as long been next to impossible to use the laptop on the tray table when the person in front of you reclines the seat, but this is getting ridiculous. And the legroom – geez! I’m barely six feet and a fairly thin 165 pounds; I can’t imagine what it’s like for my friend Chris Cox, a former All-American offensive lineman who is something like 6-foot-12 and whose legs are a thick as sequoia trees.

This being said, I do like the fact that airlines are now putting in USB ports so we can charge our smartphones. Some airlines even have electrical plugs for our computers. This would be especially nice if there was enough room to actually use our computers.

5.) Paying More For Premium’ Seats In Coach

Really? I hardly know where to begin on this one, so I’ll just leave it that this is a top travel pet peeve.

6.) Hotel Rooms That Don’t Have Enough Plugs

Every hotel should have enough plugs – or at least power strips – so we can plug in all our basic travel devices. And those plugs should be in convenient places, not located behind the headboard of the bed.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve unplugged half the lights in a room just to have an electrical outlet by the desk or bed.

7.) Hotel Rooms With A View That Have The Desk Facing A Wall

This drives me crazy – why not have the desk in front of the window!? One of the first things I do when getting to a room is rearrange the furniture.

One comical instance happened when I was in Toronto for two weeks. Each day I would move the desk by the window and then the maid would come in and move it back facing the wall. After about a week, she gave up, and I moved everything back before I checked out of the hotel.

8.) Tourists Who Get Off Planes, Elevators Or Exit Attractions Who Stop And Stand In The Doorway

This is the move of the clueless traveler, unaware there are dozens (perhaps even hundreds) of people behind them, who then trip into the backs everyone.

This is a common trait of people from small towns in the Midwest USA and they seem particularly paralyzed when they emerge from a hotel room elevator into a Las Vegas casino lobby.

9.) No Complimentary WiFi In High-End Hotels

All hotels should offer the Internet for free – in the lobby, in the rooms, coffee shops, restaurants, poolside, etc. Ever notice how the budget hotels do this but the upscale ones do not?

10.) Mini Bars With Electronic Sensors

Sometimes, I like to go out and get my own beer, wine, water or iced tea. The best place to keep it is in the mini-fridge. But most of them now have those electronic sensors that automatically charge you $7.50 for three ounces of orange juice if you touch anything on the rack.

So now I have an alternative to keeping my beverages cold.  I take ice and fill up the sink in the bathroom which, of course, is another thing I do besides rearranging furniture that apparently drives the maids crazy.