I Like This Bathroom

This hotel isn't what I define as luxury accommodation. It's definitely very well kept and maintained, along with renovation efforts along the way. My room is what I define as comfortable. I like the bathroom very much because it has a separate shower stall. You know how much I bloody hate bathtubs because I always fall out of them. It's so annoying having to get into a bathtub to take a shower because the hotel think it's cool to put a showerhead above the bathtub and nowhere else. Under these circumstances, I've always fallen out of a bathtub once over 3 showers.

Now, we've a daily subsistence allowance allocated for the respective countries of travel. It isn't called 'subsistence' for nothing. It's enough to fill your stomach and put you up at a 3-star or maybe 4-star hotel. And that's the whole point of work trips. It's not a vacation yo. (Especially not when you only have the work laptop and are cut off from communicating with your loved ones using the cheapest option of Skype.) The budget is yours to decide to spread it out in ratio of accommodation and food, or to blow it all on the hotel and foot the food bill on your own.

I'm a little spoilt. I NEVER stinge on food. I'm known to abandon colleagues for my private pursuits elsewhere at mealtimes. I do that because I know that their food choices aren't mine. But when I travel in a group, group dynamics dictate the choice of hotel, and often for meals. In that, I will not deviate from the norm and cause trouble to the organizers. I'll just deal with it and make do, including packing bottled water and whatever else I deem necessary into the suitcase.

However, when I travel alone, it's another story altogether. While convenience and proximity to my meeting venues are the top considerations, I will also need a reasonably pretty hotel that might bust the allocated subsistence. It doesn't happen often though. So when it does, I top up the difference from my own pocket. That extra cost is negligible when one takes into consideration the peace of mind received.

Ultimately, I want a room that doesn't smell funny, doesn't have creepy crawlies, has a steady wifi/lan connection, gives me crisp drinking water, separate shower stalls or no bathtubs, hot water with strong pressure, has Discovery Channel on the tv, clean floors and carpets, a good bed and a secure front door. Now, a hotel room (on work trips) that fulfils all these demands shouldn't be so hard to find, is it?