I had trouble sleeping at a hotel recently, here's why? (hotels, vacation)
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On a recent trip to San Diego I stayed at a motel and had trouble sleeping. Here's why and I would like to know if this would bother other people:
There was quite a bit of traffic noise from Interstate 5 and the only rooms they had available on my prepaid non cancellable motel reservation looked right out on the highway. I decided the only way I would be able to sleep was turn the fan on on the heating unit. The steady sound of the fan did a pretty good job at masking the heavy traffic noise, but once the temperature of the room reached a certain point the fan unit connected with the heat suddenly turned off and the silence woke me up. The fifteen minutes later the fan connected with the heater turned on again. The fan turned on and off maybe 20 times during the night and I hardly slept a wink for the three nights I was there. What kept me awake was the sudden change from fan to no fan back to fan back and forth. It drove me crazy!
I went down to the front desk and told the manager about my problem sleeping with the fan turning on and off twenty times a night. He acted like I was crazy and said no one had ever complained about this. I tried to explain to him that the constantly changing sounds from fan to no fan to fan again messed up people's sleep patterns. When people are sleeping they expect a steady amount of sound.
I told him that high quality hotels had a fan setting connected with the heater/air conditioner that allowed for a continuous fan sound that created white noise that stayed steady and consistent if the air or heat was on or off. He said I was lying and no air conditioning or heat unit worked that way and I was being petty to bring this up. I walked away angry and he snickered and rolled his eyes at me.
Better hotels have a system that works like your central A/C in your home, and you barely hear it. The compressors are located away from the rooms, not under the windows in them.
I agree with you that noisy compressors are the #1 reason I don't sleep well in certain hotel rooms.
Traffic noise only bothers me sometimes. A good hotel on the freeway will have well insulated walls and windows that will block out the worst of the noise.
By the way, the night managers in hotels are generally morons. I swear the housekeepers usually have more sense. You should have spoken to the GM.
Just my experience, but I have not encountered any heating unit of any kind that runs non-stop. So, I agree with the manager. All heat turns off when the required temperature is reached. Personally, I would not want a fan blowing all night moving cooling air around while the heat was off.
Since you know that it bothers you, start traveling with either ear plugs or a white noise machine. It's hard on your vacation to be doing it without sleep.
Just my experience, but I have not encountered any heating unit of any kind that runs non-stop. So, I agree with the manager. All heat turns off when the required temperature is reached. Personally, I would not want a fan blowing all night moving cooling air around while the heat was off.
Since you know that it bothers you, start traveling with either ear plugs or a white noise machine. It's hard on your vacation to be doing it without sleep.
A good hotel has a low fan option that would stay on between the heat or air conditioning going on and off and there is little difference between the sounds of the fan and the air conditioner/heat so you don't even know when the air or heat is running. I have stayed at hundreds of hotels and motels without this problem.
Just my experience, but I have not encountered any heating unit of any kind that runs non-stop. So, I agree with the manager. All heat turns off when the required temperature is reached. Personally, I would not want a fan blowing all night moving cooling air around while the heat was off.
Since you know that it bothers you, start traveling with either ear plugs or a white noise machine. It's hard on your vacation to be doing it without sleep.
yes, agree one of those small clip on fans should produce enough white noise
Just my experience, but I have not encountered any heating unit of any kind that runs non-stop. So, I agree with the manager. All heat turns off when the required temperature is reached. Personally, I would not want a fan blowing all night moving cooling air around while the heat was off.
Since you know that it bothers you, start traveling with either ear plugs or a white noise machine. It's hard on your vacation to be doing it without sleep.
I don't think I've ever seen a heating unit that didn't have a continuous fan setting. Whatever hotel the OP was in, I'd write that off my list. And if it was a chain, I'd complain to the chain about the behavior of the manager.
yes, agree one of those small clip on fans should produce enough white noise
They take up a lot of space in a suitcase.
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