Guesthouses (Part 2) - Qualities of a lousy guesthouse
A seasoned traveler like myself sometimes prefers to stay in a Guesthouse rather than a hotel. I like to save money too, although admittedly I am not the backpacker type. When looking for a guesthouse, here are the qualities I definitely would like to avoid unless I’m someone who enjoys sleeping with bedbugs, while huge roaches are scurrying on the floor and mosquitoes are whizzing in the air keeping me awake the whole night, not to mention inhaling dust while I sleep. Get the picture! I’m not particularly fond of flophouses, are you?
Qualities of a lousy guesthouse
- Room is not clean
- A lot of dust in the room
- Musty smell in general (room has not been aired out)
- Smell emanating from bathroom
- No place to put away personal belongings or small wardrobe (closet) to hang up clothes
- Bed has poor mattresses
- Old and dirty bed sheets and blankets
- No towels or soap in room upon check-in
- Room is cramped; bed fills up whole room.
- Low water pressure from tap or shower
- No lamp, poor lighting
- No windows with view to outside
- Poor ventilation (air doesn’t circulate)
- Poor soundproofing (you can hear your next door neighbor talking or making love)
- No aesthetic touches
- Feng shui of room is bad (bad ambiance)
- No screening on windows to keep bugs out
- Entry to bathroom is very low, person has to stoop to enter
- Owner of guesthouse is too much of a personality (a nut case)
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In general, you can apply the same criteria when you’re looking to avoid a lousy hotel room.
In my opinion, the biggest difference between a hotel and guesthouse is that a hotel has more rooms , is much larger in size and has more amenities, facilities and services than a guesthouse. Furthermore most guesthouses do not have swimming pools, fitness centers, nightclubs, lounges, room service and some of the fancy frills that a hotel offers. With many guesthouse establishments, you’ll have to carry your own luggage to your room and in many instances the bathroom and shower facilities are shared. C’est la Vie!
I’ve had my share of good to terrible guesthouse experiences. That will be the topic in a subsequent post
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