A hotel stay can be one of life’s great little luxuries. Clean sheets, a comfy bed, and room service can make for a wonderful stay.

Too often, however, hotels fall a bit short. Here are some of the little things that every hotel should have.

1. Enough plugins for your electronics Wandering around a hotel room with a charger in hand, fruitlessly looking for an electrical socket is not our idea of fun. Sadly, way too many hotels must think that customers just don’t need to be able to plug in electronics, given the number of rooms where we’ve been unable to find a free plugin anywhere near a night table or desk.
2. A quiet, efficient heating and cooling unit Sadly, most hotels use in-room a/c units under the window that sound like a backfiring truck (OK, a little exaggeration there, but not a lot). It’s awfully hard to get a good night’s sleep with that kind of noise in the background.
3. Plenty of shelves and luggage storage Too many hotels have nowhere to put your suitcase. If they do have those folding suitcase holders, you’re never find more than one, which is pretty inconvenient for families with more than one suitcase.
4. Affordable room service Sadly, it seems that room service may be a dying amenity, as we’re seeing fewer and fewer room service menus these days. When room service is prohibitively expensive, we just won’t order, but when it’s in line with reality (maybe a 20% increase over the cost of the same items in the restaurants downstairs), we’ll sometimes make the splurge.
5. Beds with the underneath blocked off Hotels with raised beds, and the underneath blocked off are fantastic. It’s great not to worry about something disgusting under the bed, and it’s also fantastic not to have to kneel on the floor and peer under the bed looking for lost socks and the like.
6. Free, Fast WiFi Internet Why is it that nicer hotels almost always seem to charge for internet access. Even worse are the hotels that limit the number of devices that you can use on their connection, or limit you use to only an hour.
7. Free local calls It’s painful to be dinged a couple of dollars just for the pleasure of phoning the local pizza company for delivery. Bonus points for hotels that offer free long distance over VOIP.
8. Pillows, pillows, pillows!One thin pillow just doesn’t cut it for those who need more support, those who like to sit up in bed to watch TV, or those who sleep with a pillow between their legs for support. Two pillows per person is a perfect number.
9. Great water pressure and enough hot water A freezing cold shower when you’re in a hurry does not make for a happy guest. Lots of water pressure, and piping hot water on demand, even during peak times, is just one of those things that’s hard to compromise on.
10. Clean, white duvet covers and fresh linenMore and more hotels are switching to using clean white duvet covers instead of the polyester horrors that were standard in most hotels for years. It’s a welcome change.

Photo of the Peoples Palace Hotel, circa 1965, by City Libraries Townsville