European Hotels

Hotels in Europe tend to have fewer frills and features than hotels in the United States. For example, free cable television is standard at even the cheapest U.S. motel chains. In Europe, however, few moderately priced and inexpensive hotel rooms even have televisions.

Europe’s more traditional hotels and pensions (smaller, family-run places) typically differ from American hotels in the following ways:

- The appearance of the lobby rarely reflects the appearance of the rooms. Never judge a European hotel by the front entry; expensive hotels sometimes invest heavily in the lobby but cut corners on the rooms, and cheaper hotels often have just a dingy desk in a hallway, but spotless, fine accommodations upstairs.

- “Double” beds are often two side-by-side twin beds made with a single sheet and blanket (or overlapping twin sheets). If you’re worried about that crack between the two widening over the course of the night and your slipping through (it happens), turn the mattresses perpendicular to the springs. Also, watch out for ancient mattresses that sag in the middle.

- Hotels in old European buildings often don’t have elevators. If they do, the few elevators that are available are likely to be so rickety and slow that they belong in a museum.

- Floors are often covered with tile or linoleum instead of carpet.

- Bathrooms are vastly and surprisingly different from the American norm (see the next section, “The bathroom: The big culture shock”).

- You can trust hotel staff to provide you with general information and pamphlets about sightseeing and attractions, but be wary of anything beyond that. A restaurant recommended by an employee may be one owned by a relative or someone who has agreed to give the hotel a kickback. Usually the place is fine, but never count on a hotel to direct you to the best food in town. Hotel staff members may also offer to get you tickets for the theater or cultural shows, but tickets are usually cheaper from the box office or local tourism office.

In short, think of the hotel simply as a safe, clean place that’s reasonably close to the sights, with a room where you can rest between long days of sightseeing. Oh, and unless you’re in a 3- to 5-star property, don’t expect to see chocolates on your pillow or little bottles of shampoo and conditioner in the bathroom, either.

The bathroom: The big culture shock

People who haven’t traveled in Europe think that language, architecture, and food best illustrate the cultural differences between the United States and the Continent. Sorry, guess again. Americans traveling in Europe experience the greatest culture shock in the bathroom. It all starts in your first cheap pension, when you find out that the only bathroom is down the hall and shared by everyone on the floor — of both sexes.

European hoteliers have trouble understanding why so many American travelers don’t want to share a bathroom. Although more and more European hotels are installing bathrooms in every room, this is far from the norm. If you simply can’t bear the thought of sharing a bathroom, you’ll have to pay extra for a private bathroom in your room. Europeans usually refer to the bathroom itself simply as the toilet. You may also hear the term W.C. (short for the British euphemism “water closet”).

The shower: Another new adventure

In many European hotels, the concept of a shower is something like this: a nozzle stuck in the bathroom wall and a drain in the floor; curtains optional. In some cramped private baths, you have to remove the toilet paper from the bathroom to keep it dry while you drench the whole room with your shower.

Bath-takers are not home-free, either. Some European hotels still have half-tubs, in which you can only sit, not stretch out. The half-tub usually sports a shower nozzle that has nowhere to hang — your knees get very clean, but the floor gets very wet.

Although this has been changing in recent years, in smaller, cheaper hotels it’s still sometimes true that hot water may be available only once a day — and not when you want it. This is especially true in hotels with shared baths. Because heating water is costly, many smaller hotels only do it once a day, in the morning; after the hot water is used up, you won’t be able to get any more until the next day. So when you check in, ask, “When is the water hot?” Try to be the first in line, shower quickly, and soap up with the water off. In some countries, especially Britain, you may have to turn on the hot water yourself at a small water heater either inside or just outside the stall.

Before you take your shower or bath, remember that traditional European towels are annoyingly nonabsorbent. Carry your own towel for just such an emergency (a terry-cloth hand towel is less bulky than a full-size one; camping towels work great).

That extra thing: Not a toilet

The extra porcelain fixture that looks like another toilet is called a bidet (bi-day). Do not use the bidet as a toilet. The water that jets up and out is supposed to clean your private parts more thoroughly than toilet paper. Some non-European travelers wash clothes or store fruit or beverages in the bidet, but if you think about what the bidet is supposed to be used for, you’ll see the sink is a much better place to do your laundry.