In addition to the room upgrades, attentive staff, and perks like champagne, the world's best
A recent
Nothing Is Ever Too Much To Ask For
"I had overslept [at the Al Faisaliah in Riyadh] and needed to finish some work and checkout quickly so I could make my flight back home. The butler had brought in my breakfast (they have butler service) and saw that I was rushing. He asked if I needed anything and I sarcastically replied "Well unless you can pack my bags." All I heard was a "why of course" and then he proceeded to perfectly fold all my dress clothes into my bags in a few minutes." -- Saikat B.
"When I wanted to eat at the rooftop restaurant but lacked the appropriate attire, Ian [the floor butler] brought a rack of suits to my room. When I called Ian to see when the jet ski rental booth closed, he told me it closed at six but not to worry. I did not know what this meant at the time. A few moments later, Ian called back to inform me that the rental booth reopened so that I could be dragged around on a tube behind a motor boat for a half hour. The Burj al Arab's service was almost uncomfortable." -- Alan D.
"I'll never forget one time on a Disney cruise when my cousin said he wanted nothing for dessert, and they brought out a plate with the word nothing written in chocolate sauce. It was cute, clever, and nice because he didn't have to sit there with no plate in front of him while everyone else ate, and it put a smile on all our faces." -- Kristen B.
They Go Out Of Their Way To Make You Feel At Home
"At the Maximilian hotel in Prague, you can get a goldfish delivered to your room." -- Sebastian I.
"I recently checked in [to The PennyHill Hotel in Surrey, UK] and requested a cot for my daughter. When I arrived they had put a cot in the room, put a couple of blankets in the cot but also left a champagne bucket on the side, a kettle, some still water, a few small soft towels and a teddy bear with a note saying 'we do not have a bottle warmer available however please feel free to use the champagne bucket as a substitute alongside hot water. We have also provided mineral water in case you have milk formula and a complimentary teddy bear for company, hopefully this will be the first of many happy nights here for your family, best regards'." -- Anthony S.
Even When You Make A Mistake, They'll Fix It
"I unintentionally booked a room with 2 queen beds, instead of 1 king. At check-in, when I realized this, I asked if there might be any king rooms available; the hotel was booked to capacity and there was nothing. I didn't raise too much of a fuss, though, and assured the front desk manager - despite his constant apologies - it was my fault for having booked the wrong room type, and appreciated their looking in to availability nonetheless."
"I dropped off everything at my room and left the hotel for a number of meetings I had in town that day. When I returned to the hotel in the evening, I found a note from the manager apologizing for my having gotten the wrong room type (even though it was my own fault!). More impressively, though, they had actually disassembled and removed the 2 queen beds that were in the room, and brought in a spare king bed and set that up; while they had no king rooms available, they did have some king beds and used one to turn my room in to what I wanted.
"What's more, they did all of that for just a single night as they upgraded me to a suite that had become available (with king bed) the next night until the end of my stay." -- Brian D.
They Pay Attention To The Tiniest Details
"When we were at the Disney Ambassador Hotel at Tokyo Disneyland a couple of years ago, my sister left her glasses in our room when we went out to dinner. When we came back to the room, we found out that housekeeping had done this with a hand towel in the meantime:" -- Makiko I.
"It was a nice (but not luxurious) hotel in Japan. I had just woken up and prepared myself a cup of hot tea in my hotel room. I had just taken a sip or two when we decided to go down to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast. When we returned, we found the housekeeping staff had come to make up our room.
"One of the staff had placed a coffee cup saucer over the top of my tea cup, so my beverage would be hot when I returned (although they had no way of knowing if I would return so quickly). I took a sip of my (still) hot tea and thought to myself how thoughtful they were to have paid attention to such details. This happened many years ago, but I still remember fondly a little touch that meant a lot. I left them a generous tip, when I checked out." -- Garrick S.
They Take Care Of Your Valuables
"A friend left her purse, with most of her valuables, in my Tokyo hotel room as I checked out. The hotel didn't know her name. She realized her loss as the Narita Express train we were on pulled out of the station. As she had kept her passport and some credit cards separately and with her, we decided to continue on to Narita.
"At the airport when I checked in, I was told, 'United desk X has a message for you.' The message was from the hotel. It said, 'When cleaning your room, we found a purse and gave it to an Airport Limousine driver. It will arrive at Narita airport at XX:XX.' The time was five minutes after reading the message. Nothing was missing." -- Dick K.
"Because of a planned strike the next day by Air France, I had to leave the Sofitel Hotel in Cannes unexpectedly early in order to make my connections back to the US. In my hurry I left behind some of my clothes, toiletries, and a battery charger.
"The next year I chanced to stay at the same hotel and found all the items I had left behind cleaned, ironed, tagged, and lined up on the bed. My formerly dirty, sandy, wet Nike shoes looked new.
"I made a point of leaving an entire suitcase behind at this Sofitel. For the next 20 years it was always there waiting 1 year later. No charge." -- Fred L.
And They Will Literally Take Care Of You
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"A day or two after checking in, I came down with a pretty bad case of the flu. I limped thru one day of meetings, but finally surrendered, called my clients and cancelled my meetings.
"When the maid service knocked on the door, I explained I wasn't feeling well and wouldn't need their services for a day or two. An hour later I got a call from the manager asking if she could help in anyway. I told her I was fine and just needed to ride it out. She said she understood, and hoped I wouldn't mind that room service had just left a bowl of soup and pitcher of orange juice outside my door. I would never have ordered it for myself, but it was an absolute godsend.
"Over the next two days, I would hear a very discreet knock on the door and open it to find small, healthful snacks - fruit, tea, toast, broth - it was as if my fairy godmother was nursing me back to health." -- Andy E.