Hotel lighting leaves a lot to be desired
What kind of sadist puts overhead fluorescent lights in a hotel bathroom to terrify the guests?
Hotels have made great strides in improving their mattresses, decor, amenities, showers and meals.
Win a 7-day cruise to the Caribbean for two! But somewhere along the line, the cruel, ghoulish lighting in hotel bathrooms was allowed to continue, a relic of the days when hotels thought they could get away with dumpy rooms and poor service.
So hotel guests, unite. Start complaining about hotel bathroom lighting until it gets better.
It is not just vanity that makes me want a kinder light radiating above the hotel vanity.
Fluorescent light actually distorts colors, causing makeup errors and hotel guests who look in the mirror and think, "Wow, do I really look that bad?"
Fluorescent lighting casts a blue tint and illuminates every skin imperfection, which explains why everyone — probably even Beyonce and Tom Brady — looks sickly under its glare.
Hotels use them because they are economical.
They also use them because most hotel bathrooms are dark corners off dim rooms, nowhere near a window or any vestige of natural light, and some builder decided, gee, let"s use the same lighting we use in the wood shop back at the factory and put it right here over the sink.
Everyone knows that God and Cupid invented candles so that lovers look better to one another.
Please, hotel designers! Design hotel rooms where the guests look better to themselves. Design a bathroom with a window, and let in natural light.
At least install lights on both sides of the sink, not above. Use regular incandescent lights, or halogen lights, or indirect lights, or LED lights, or at least those full-spectrum, natural daylight fluorescents instead of those glaring, hideous old-fashioned models.
Hotel managers, I will tell you why you must invest in this. A hotel guest who thinks he or she looks good is a happy guest. Happy guests complain less. Happy guests leave better tips. Happy guests will probably come back.
I"ll even give you an example.
Two weeks ago, I stayed three nights in a fancy, name-brand, fairly new high-rise hotel in Houston. It was wonderful in every other way.
But, are you kidding? I"m not staying there again.
I don"t want to glimpse myself in the bathroom mirror.
———
Ellen Creager: ecreager@freepress.com var afterLoginLocation = ""; var defaultLocation = $("articlePromoLink").href; var wasClicked = false; if (!!window.carnival) { new memberNav( "#articlePromoLink", function() { //user is logged in if(!!afterLoginLocation && afterLoginLocation != "" && afterLoginLocation != "default"){ $("articlePromoLink").onclick = function(){ carnival.utils.listener.fire("_carnival_"+afterLoginLocation); wasClicked = true; return false; } } }, function(){ //user is not logged in if(!!afterLoginLocation && afterLoginLocation != ""){ $("articlePromoLink").onclick = function(){ carnival.modal.popit(location.protocol+"//"+carnival.configuration("currentDomain")+"/"+signon.folder+"/site/registration/modal.signon"); wasClicked = true; carnival.user.afterLogin( function(){ if(!!afterLoginLocation && afterLoginLocation != "" && afterLoginLocation != "default"){ carnival.utils.listener.fire("_carnival_"+afterLoginLocation); } else if(wasClicked){ window.location = defaultLocation; } } ); return false; } }//if } ).writeNav(); }//if textSize() vs-travel-creager-hotel-lighting-20120213 TUGS.setInitCount("{"message":"No rating."}"); TUGS.tugsURL = "http://discussions.orlandosentinel.com/"; TUGS.init_starRating(); Collision with the Law: Few follow Monroe"s lead on cop-chase reforms Comments 0 trblib.jQuery(function() { trblib.require("http://w.sharethis.com/button/buttons.js", function() { stLight.options({ publisher:"4b7449a5-38e2-462a-a6cd-97326133f123", onhover: false, newOrZero: "zero", embeds:"true" }); }); }); (function() { var po = document.createElement("script"); po.type = "text/javascript"; po.async = true; po.src = "https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js"; var s = document.getElementsByTagName("script")[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })(); « Previous Story More Florida Travel: News and advice for Florida travel and vacation Next Story » Ripley"s giant wedding-vow renewal falls short of record The Frugal Traveler: Domestic travel on a dime var site=""; var obt="tribune"; var obwid = "AR_1"; var obwidPhoto = "AR_2"; site = "orlandosentinel";obt = "orlandosentinel"; if(obt=="localtv") {address="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/travel/vs-travel-creager-hotel-lighting-20120213,0,5013048.story";} else if(site=="") {address=document.location.href;} else {address="http://www."+site+".com/travel/vs-travel-creager-hotel-lighting-20120213,0,5013048.story";} var OB_permalink= address; var OB_widgetId= obwid; var OB_Template = obt; var OB_langJS ="http://widgets.outbrain.com/lang_en.js"; if ( typeof(OB_Script)!="undefined" ) OutbrainStart(); else { var OB_Script = true; var str = "" document.write(str); }