At what point did people start to lose all respect for their fellow human beings? For the past fifteen years of travel, I have never been so badly bothered by by my neighbors in a hotel that I've had to switch rooms. This year I've had to do it twice, and we're only half-way through.
On Thursday night, the room below me was having a party which kept me up until 2:00am. Then last night, the room next to mine woke me up at 1:00am because the occupants were out on the balcony screaming at the top of their lungs. One night of sleep I can miss. But two in a row when I have a three-hour drive ahead of me just cannot happen. I had to pack up my stuff and go beg to change rooms which, thankfully, they agreed to do.
I just don't get it.
I've gone out drinking and and partying with my friends too many times to count. But you know what? We always save our wild behavior for when we're in an appropriate place... like in a club, or (duh!) at a party. We've never gone back to a hotel room and started screaming our lungs out at 1:00am! It never even occurred to us to do something so horribly bad-mannered.
My how times have changed.
If I am paying $130 a night for a place to sleep, I shouldn't have to put up with this kind of shit. I should be legally allowed to pull out a gun, break down the door, and shoot the idiots in their f#@%ing heads... then have nothing more than a cleaning bill to answer for. Assholes like this who have absolutely no concern for anybody else deserve nothing more. There's just no reason to have them around when all they do is make other people miserable.
And why don't hotels do something about it? Why not have guests sign a "no-noise agreement?" Why not install noise sensors that can automatically detect prolonged excessive audio and then kick their stupid asses out if it goes off? Why not install doors that have hydraulic pulls so that they can't be slammed? I'd gladly pay extra money for hotels that guaranteed a noise-free environment so I could actually do what I go there to do... SLEEP!
As it is now, the moronic public at large is ruining what used to be fun things. You can't go to a hotel without people being noisy and ruining your slumber. You can't go to a movie theater without people being noisy and ruining the show. You can't go to a restaurant without people being noisy and ruining your dinner. Sometimes it's by obnoxious drunken behavior. Sometimes it's because of a mobile phone. Most times it's because people are just stupid.
All I know is that the problem is getting worse with each passing day. Every single day society doesn't care a little bit more. Every single day respect and common decency break down a little bit further. Every single day I come closer to going insane over it all.
We've already got people shooting up cars because the alarm keeps going off in the middle of the night. How long before it's PEOPLE who get shot up for going off in the middle of the night?
Oh... one last thing... am I the only one who wants to put their foot through the television when a commercial comes on where some idiot is crunching on their stupid-ass breakfast cereal? I don't want to listen to that shit in my real life... why in the f#@% do these dumbass advertising people think I want to listen to it while being entertained? I love Grape-Nuts cereal, but every time that annoying commercial comes on with that guy loudly chewing the shit, it makes me never want to buy a box of the crap ever again. Isn't that the exact OPPOSITE of what a television commercial is supposed to do?
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Completely agree. I don’t stay in hotels much but assholes making noise at all hours of the morning is unacceptable. I hate being in the cinema when people just won’t shuttup or turn off their mobile phones. There should be jail sentences for this type of thing.
Honestly? I think what’s at work here is that we don’t challenge rudeness as much as we used to. I mean, in contrast to your fantasy of barging into the room guns blazing, is my fear that these guys might be similarly armed, and might be willing to fire back. As a result, I think people accept more than they’d accept normally, out of fear of “rocking the boat”.
I know I have a neighbour that has a stereo on too late, and engages in late night summer parties on their patio. It’s annoying, but I’ve not once knocked on their door, because they’re what I’d call suspicious. It took a late night party at 1:30 a.m. while my wife was sick, as well as the smell of marijuana smoke creeping in from my window to convince me to jump past the “knock on the door” stage and actually call in the police. Which seemed to put a crimp on their late night patio parties, but has left the loud stereos as an issue.
Our other neighbours have recently taken a more direct approach to dealing with the problem, telling them in no uncertain terms that they do not approve. And knowing that there are other people who have my back, makes me a bit more willing to push back myself. So, that’s the other key, I think. Right now, too mahy of us think we’re alone in dealing with obnoxious people.
There was another approach you could have taken. I’m surprised you didn’t demand a full refund from your hotels for the ruining of your late night sleep. You could argue that you had a reasonable expectation of a good night’s sleep, and if you had gotten loud yourself, you might have at least have gotten your money back. If more people did this, the hotels might start to clue in that there is an economic cost to allowing isolated customers ruin the night’s experience for the rest of us, and they might be willing to risk cracking down.
It’s not an easy thing. In my opinion you have to judge each sitation and wether or not it is a “hill to die for”. Changing rooms is the most logical course of action after complaining. What did the management say?
A neighbor situation is something that probably has to be handled. Why not call the police right at the start? That’s probably the way it should be handled. I believe in protecting myself and my loved one with any means, including firearms, but as a last resort.
Old blog, but I have to post. Very good idea about the waiver for loud behavior. Make it a forfeit of all monies paid for excessive noise. If someone signs an agreement like that, and they are rude jagoffs and get kicked out then they cant complain, or try to sue for reimbursement and are very likely to shut the hell up. I have dealt with this too, and it is sooo maddening. Like the other guy said too, I think it is in part to a more scared society, scared of the ever increasing violence in our country. A lot are probably too worried about complaining. But if the hotels do the waiver AND explain it before allowing room rentals then it owuld I imagine lower or virtually eliminate excessive noise/partying in the rooms. At least at nicer places. Good idea though. Seriously.