The Hazelton Hotel: A bug report

Posted by Peter on Jun 4, 2011 in Reviews, Travel | Comments Off

Sue and I recently indulged ourselves with a stay at the Hazelton Hotel.  The hotel is very visually attractive and includes all of the high end features that you’d expect from a luxury hotel.  However, in trying to differentiate itself, it committed a number of faults that lead to unnecessary nuisances.

Here’s a short list of actions that should have been obvious but weren’t:

Taking a bath

To take a bath is usually a three step process:

1. Insert plug.
2. Pour water.
3. Take bath.

I got stopped in my tracks by step number 1.  The bath plug was nothing like anything I had ever seen before (which just goes to show you how little time I spend at the high end hotels maybe).  It wasn’t a simple rubber stop.  It wasn’t a fixed, spring loaded plug.  It didn’t screw in.  It didn’t do anything as far as I could tell.  Pushing it down did nothing.  There wasn’t any obvious activating switch on the faucet or bathtub rim.

Eventually i tried pulling it up to figure out what was wrong; big mistake.  The plug was attached to a series of metal links that seemed to snake inside the tub.  Pulling it out only meant that I had to feed this snake of links back in which, of course, I couldn’t do.  Dumbfounded we called the front desk who sent someone up to fix the contraption.

Took a few minutes but the snake eventually went back into the whole and the clerk showed me that the relief drain plate (the plate that usually cover the hole through which excess water flows) was actually the way to activate the plug.  Lift the plate to open, push the plate to close.  The clerk indicated that this is the most common problem they see .  No kidding.

Turning off the bed lights

The Hazelton has forgone the simple light switch and instead opted for the panel concept.  The panel has buttons like “All Lights On” and “All Lights Off”.  Why you need TWO buttons for this action I have no idea but there you go.  So, right before bed, with both of our side bed lights already on (due to the turn down service I guess), we were ready to bed.

Sue pressed the “All Lights Off” button and…nothing happened.  Ends up being that, despite all of the fancy buttons, the side lights are manually operated and have nothing to do with the “All Lights On” button.

Turning on the Heated Floors

Here again, the panel concept strikes.  The bathroom has a heated floor but since the switch is on the panel and it’s darn near impossible to tell if you’ve activated the button, it’s very hard to tell without waiting for a long time to tell if you’ve activated the heated floors.  Just another example where you can take a simple concept like a light switch and turn it into a usability nightmare.

There were a number of other minor points – like the room service table doesn’t fit through the door without folding down; a nice feature that makes the table large but basically impossible to wheel it out of your room unless you KNOW THIS FACT – but mostly they were minor.

There was a very nice win in the design department that I should mention however:  the bathroom doors fold INTO the wall meaning that when the doors are open, there doesn’t appear to be any doors at all.  Swinging them closed also gives the impression that there is no bathroom.  Very clean and interesting and stylish without being overly complicated or fancy.

Beyond that, the hotel is very nice and posh.  Everything you’d expect for a high end hotel.  But keep the light switches and bath tub plugs.