Travelers complain that hotels today make light switches too complicated and that the brightness of the bulbs is never quite right.
Hotels try to please guests and outperform their competitors by going above and beyond in the lighting department. Establishments are constantly leveling lighting elements and stylizing lamps and exposed elements.
Chelsea Zeferina uploaded a video ranting about her hotel’s light fixtures on TikTok in a video that racked up nearly 4,000 likes.
“Any rational person would think that this switch under the light turns off this lamp,” he narrated while pointing to a button directly under the bedside light.
‘No! “This light makes the hallway light flicker like in a horror movie,” he complains.
Travelers complain that hotels today make light switches too complicated and that the brightness of the bulbs is never quite right.
He then walked over to a wall-mounted light switch and demonstrated how, for some strange reason, the button controlled the lamp under a random bench on the other side of the room.
Finally he showed how a six-foot-high switch on a bathroom wall connected to the bedside lamp, for some strange reason.
“Hotels should include a specific instruction manual on which switch corresponds to which lights,” one user commented.
Zeferina isn’t the only person who has recently had difficulty navigating her hotel room’s complex lighting system.
Ken McLain, president of a regional bank and experienced hotel guest, discovered during a recent stay in Boise, Idaho, that the switch by the door actually turned on a small light in the minibar.
After fumbling in the dark, McLain was finally able to find a tiny switch hidden in the lamp…far from the bulb.
“I guess they’re trying to get style points to hide that change,” he told Wall Street Journal.
Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano says he has stayed at the London Edition hotel (pictured), a luxury boutique hotel designed by Ian Schrager, and says he still hasn’t figured out how the fancy light switches work of the hotel.
Eric Roberts (pictured), a Squid Games competitor, uploaded a TikTok to his account showing his own struggle with a hotel lighting system, with the caption “why is it so hard?”
Hotel guests are fed up with having to deal with lighting in their rooms.
Whether there are too many or not enough lighting fixtures, or whether the switches are too complicated or hidden, as is often the case… travelers around the world are struggling with the simple act of turning a light on and off.
“Nothing drives me crazier than lighting,” Steve McDuffie, a Washington state scientist who travels frequently for his work managing nuclear waste, told the Wall Street Journal.
Problems arise when hotels try to hide basic lighting needs, such as switches, for stylistic and decorative reasons.
Problems also arise when hotels get creative with the lights they install, including reading lights, vanity mirrors and headboard panels.
These fancy additions only complicate matters, especially when these companies are trying to update older buildings while facing the economic realities of running a hotel.
“It’s harder to get the same functionality as if you were doing a new construction project,” says Sarah Churchill, director of business development for Benjamin West, a Colorado company that buys furniture, fixtures and equipment for hotels.
Churchill said he had to ask his boss to show him where the switch was on a desk lamp in New York City last fall.
She says her colleague didn’t know how to turn off the bedside light at a hotel in Salt Lake City, so she slept all night with a washcloth over her head to block the light.
Not even hotel executives themselves can handle the impossible feat of turning on a light during their stay.
Marriott International CEO Tony Capuano says he has stayed at the London Edition hotel, a luxury boutique hotel designed by Ian Schrager.
Capuano says he still hasn’t figured out how the hotel’s fancy light switches work.
“They’re lovely, but we prefer form over function,” he says.
Eric Roberts, a Squid Games competitor, uploaded a TikTok to his account showing his own struggle with a hotel lighting system, with the caption “why is it so hard?”
Users flooded to the comments to agree. ‘So true. “You think you’ve done it, you climb into bed blindly, turn on the little light on the nightstand and the parking lot lights up,” one TikToker joked.
“It’s like a damn light puzzle before bed,” said another.
Another asked: “Why are the switches always so far away from the actual light?”
Kellie Sirna, who designs hotels in Dallas, says lighting is one of the top three features hotel guests care about, along with a good mattress and functional space.
Sirna says, “A room that is too dark or too bright kills the mood and can kill an experience.”
According to Sirna, hotels have to juggle to strike a perfect balance between the lighting features we are used to having in our homes and lighting that is affordable, durable and not too difficult to use.