Electronic frustration when traveling
 

I love my iPhone when traveling for GPS and Yelp and Google maps. But little things drive me nuts like the mag card for the elevator and room key. It seems like about 25% of the time they crap out and I have to go to the front desk. I tried resetting the time on the room alarm clock for DST, going through menus,select, entered, repeat. I spent a few minutes trying to change the clock time and gave up and set my iphone alarm.

Point of this post? I don't know; I guess they are making simple stuff complicated, at least for a 59 y/o.

I never use the clock in the room. They are almost always wrong. I have recurring alarms set on both my phones and just use those, edit as needed for the trip.

But I agree on the room key, I wish they'd go to an RFID system, works so much better.

I hate the lights on those clock radios. First thing I do is unplug them.

Those hotel mag cards are way too sensitive.
I always ask for two and keep one separate away from my cell phone and wallet.

I always ask for 2 keys. SmileWavy

I feel your pain. I've taken to unplugging the clock when I get into my room. I've been awakened by some someone else's alarm setting way too many times. My phones used to erase my key cards if I wasn't careful to keep them apart, but I haven't had that issue in about a year.

I had a very perplexing problem about a year ago. I picked up my phone in the middle of the night and there was a picture of a pancake on the screen. Nothing I did got the pancake to go away. About 20 minutes of screwing around like a monkey with a football and I finally figured out it was the keycard electrostaticly stuck to my phone. They were advertising their free breakfast by putting a picture of it on their keycards.

Just keep the keys in another pocket. But I have had to have lock mechanisms replaced several times. And I use a hotel generated wake-up with 100% success. The $1 Bill slot on soda machines needs a little rethinking however . . .

Ian

I recommend reading "Heads in Beds" for an inside look at how hotels operate. Very enlightening, for instance, in-room minibars are basically free if you play it right.