Marshall Brain's Blog

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This morning I am staying at a Hyatt hotel in Atlanta, GA. I am already up, but the alarm clock in the room just went off at 6:50AM. I did not set the alarm -- whoever was here yesterday set it, I guess. If I had been sleeping soundly at 6:50AM, I would have been pissed.

This is not an uncommon occurence. For example, this has happened to me: I am in a hotel with a big event coming up the next day. My flight has arrived late. I have crawled into bed at 1AM hoping to sleep until 8AM to be "rested and refreshed" for the event and... the alarm clock (set by a previous guest) goes off at 4AM. I can't go back to sleep, so instead of "rested and refreshed" I go to the event on 3 hours of sleep.

This has happened to me enough that I will now usually unplug the alarm clock when I walk into a hotel room. But the clock in this room today did not catch my eye last night and I forgot to unplug it.

This must happen every day to hundreds of people staying in hotels, and it must piss off lots of people. My question: Given that it pisses off lots of people, and given that the whole idea behind a hotel room is to be a place to SLEEP, why do hotels put sleep-robbing time bombs (aka alarm clocks) in their rooms? People who need an alarm can get a wake up call or bring their own clocks. The National Campaign to Eliminate Alarm Clocks from Hotel Rooms (NCEACHR) needs your support...