Checking into a hotel should mean leaving your troubles at the door. But all too often hotels fail to live up to the fantasy. From painfully slow (and expensive) wi-fi and non-existent sea views to raucous neighbours and unexpected fees, we rank our all-time top annoyances when it comes to staying in hotels.

Ever had that sinking feeling when you’re on your way home from a lovely hotel stay and you remember you left your valuables in the safe? Yep, us too. We blame the in-room safe's covert position – usually inside the deep recesses of the wardrobe – which inevitably means out of sight, out of mind.

You know your hotel is more 'bijou' than 'boutique' when there's only enough floor space for one open suitcase. You could unpack and stow your case in the wardrobe, of course, but when you’re only there for a night or so, let's face it, that's a faff. And even in roomier hotels, you're inevitably only given one luggage rack. This handy piece of kit is hot property, freeing up space and saving you from kneeling down to rummage through your case, so be prepared to fight over it with your travel companions.

Having your credit card pre-charged with a deposit at check-in can be riling, especially if you’re overseas and likely to be saddled with an international payment fee. Many hotels take an imprint of credit cards to cover any extra charges – in other words, in case you raid the mini-bar and do a midnight flit. Although the money goes back in after your stay, it can take several days for it to appear in your account.

A lack of hotel car parking can sway a booking decision. So it's all-the-more irritating to arrive and find a promised car park is the size of a postage stamp and the chance of finding a space is nigh on impossible. You either have to keep popping back in the vain hope of finding one or admit defeat and cough up for a long-stay car park. It stands to reason that most small hotels have limited parking spaces, but we'd love an option to prebook a slot and save ourselves some stress.

The age-old argument over the air-conditioning temperature ramps up a gear in a hotel room – and while some air-con units blow out Arctic-like winds, others give off a mere whisper of a breeze. The illicit midnight trip to edge up or nudge down the temperature setting has been known to cause many a row but, after all, there’s little pleasure in luxuriating in a huge hotel bed if you’re shivering or sweating all night.

You've checked in, got your key and are headed to your hotel room. But before you arrive at your third-floor suite, you'll need to endure a sweaty scrum with your fellow hotel guests since the '10-person-capacity' lift has little more than room for two. Sometimes the space is so small that you must bid your loved ones adieu as you scramble into the lift, and press yourself firmly between the wall and your suitcase. Still, the ride will be worth it once you reach your hotel room.

You’re new in town and looking for the inside track on the best places to eat, drink and explore. The hotel blurb tells you to chat to the concierge who can help wangle you a booking at some of the top places to go. Or maybe not, as you find yourself in a thoroughly mediocre restaurant surrounded by fellow hotel guests and you’re pretty sure he's getting a kick-back.

One of the great joys of staying in a hotel has to be the array of little bottled toiletries, handy shower caps, mini loofahs and nail files. No matter how many times we stay in a hotel, we love checking out the kit and discovering which brands the hotel has to offer. So, imagine the disappointment of finding subpar products, or no products at all. Next time, we'll pack some spare shampoo, just in case...

The lazy morning is what hotel stays were made for, especially if you're only there for a night or two. So why is it that some hotels stop serving breakfast at 9.30am or before? An early meal leaves you two choices. Wake up before the birds to shower and get ready, or simply roll out of bed and haul yourself into the breakfast room in a cloud of sleep. Most of us would probably plump for a few hours of extra shut-eye.

For non-Americans, the custom of tipping in hotels can be a minefield. Constantly wondering whether you need to tip the doorman, porter, lift attendant, car valet, housekeeper, concierge or room-service staff can be an exhausting, stressful and potentially expensive business.

Most of us rely on our own alarms, but if you’ve got an early flight to catch, having a back-up is always a wise idea. Cue the handy hotel wake-up call. More often than not it’s reliable, but we have been stung a few times by not getting that all-important call when we need it. Equally, we have been roused from our blissful slumber by errant ringing telephones, thanks to the reception desk phoning by mistake.

Some hotel beds are huge – in fact they're big enough to sleep a small family. But find yourself in the middle and you’ll undoubtedly discover the gap. Lots of hotels push two single beds together to make one. Without a decent mattress topper, you’ll find yourself sleeping on a rather niggling ridge if you roll into the centre. Worst still, the beds may even roll apart and you’ll find yourself suspended in a strange kind of hammock.

High-rise city-centre hotel rooms deliver fantastic urban views, but come Monday morning they can also deliver wide-eyed city workers staring straight at you as you stride out of the bathroom. Gulp.

Call us impatient, but waiting more than 30 minutes for our luggage to arrive puts us on edge. We wouldn’t mind, but we were happy to carry them ourselves until the receptionist insisted the porter would do it. Now we’re desperate to go to the loo/have a shower/get changed/go out exploring, but are stuck in limbo longing for that all-important knock on the door.

You’ve chosen your hotel mostly for its exceptional spa and pool. You're all prepped for a post-journey dip only to find the swimming pool is closed for maintenance during your stay. Perhaps you’ll have a nice massage instead? Nope, the spa is fully booked for the duration of your holiday. A soak in the bath it is, then.

From surreptitious charges for bottled water and snacks left on the side, to extra fees for the use of a cot and that early check-in they "gave" you, hotel stays can be full of hidden extras. In fact, it’s common for hotels in some countries to levy an extra fee on top of your booking rate that covers internet, local calls, coffee, use of the gym/pool/resort beach, cleaning, and bottled water whether you use them or not.

Most of the time, when you arrive at a hotel you’ve had a long journey to get there. You’re well and truly ready to put down your bags and put your feet up. But while all you want is a swift and efficient check-in and your room key in your hand, that's not always how it goes. Hotel receptions are often understaffed at peak check-in hours and an undue amount of form filling and document photocopying can result in a painfully slow process. It makes leaping onto that big hotel bed all the more satisfying, though.

It might be generally over-priced, but for the convenience and novelty factor, sometimes we’re happy to pay the premium for room service. However, we thought the point of room service was that it was pretty much 24/7? Discovering we've missed room service when we finally arrive at our hotel late at night can really leave a sour taste in the mouth. Mind you, so can seeing our room service trays still lingering outside our door later the next day.

You’ve checked into a hotel as a group and are all shown your rooms. You’re happy with your lodgings until you pop down to see your mates, only to discover they’ve bagged a better room. They have a more impressive view, a huge spa bath and the biggest bed you’ve ever seen. You try not to look too smug when they mention their noisy neighbours...

You’re in a different city for a few days on a work trip and are looking forward to exploring it in your free time. Only when you get there, you discover your boss has put you up in a gloomy industrial estate hotel miles from anywhere. Room service it is, then.

When it comes to in-room technology, we’re pretty much happy as long as we have free and fast wi-fi in our rooms. But all too often hotels charge hefty prices for wi-fi and to add insult to injury, it's too slow to stream or upload photos. Consider it a forcibly imposed digital detox.

Don't get us wrong, we love a cool design, but sometimes the uber-trendy hotel experience can wear us down. From people posing by the pool to loud beats and contrived signage, it can all get a bit too much. Quite frankly, we want to relax and escape, not to feel like we're playing catch up with the cool crowd or trapped in a nightclub as we walk through the lobby.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's the hotel that's stuck in a time warp. With everything from chintzy furniture to dusty old antiques, some hotels toe the line between an elegant period property and a decrepit inn that's seen better days. If the brochure describes your hotel as 'historic' be prepared for it to swing either way.

You’ve booked into a charming countryside hotel with lashings of history. The website looks fantastic. Only when you arrive, you find that your room is actually in a modern outbuilding with none of the period character promised. Or, alternatively, you discover that the hotel's 'guaranteed sea view' is only visible by sticking your head out the bathroom window. Next time you'll read the reviews...

Some hotel designers seem to forget that it's not always amorous couples that share hotel rooms. Imagine heading away for a weekend with your parents, friends or siblings only to discover that the bathroom has a glass wall. It doesn't make for a comfortable stay. From sheer walls and loos that are a little too close to the bed to baths plonked right in the middle of the room, we've had it all.

Holidays are for leisurely mornings and pre-dinner naps. You’ve popped the “do not disturb” sign on the door and are snoozing safe in the knowledge that you won’t be bothered. But sure enough, the housekeeping staff still knock on the door and come in to change your towels, re-stock the mini-bar or do the turn-down service. There goes that precious lie-in or nap.

READ MORE: 10 things hotels need to stop doing now

It’s not just next-door neighbours that can cause sleepless nights. A whole medley of extraneous sounds can drift through your hotel room door – people chatting as they walk along the hallway, doors slamming throughout the night, the ice machine grinding and the lift pinging and whirring. It's not always easy to get a decent night’s kip in a hotel.

Impossible to turn on, boiling hot, freezing cold, weak, ferocious and leaky – you name it, we've had it all with hotel showers. It's a rare thing when a hotel shower delivers a blissful stream of warm water, but when it does, we'll need to be prised out of the bathroom.

You’ve been on your feet all day and you can’t wait to get back to your hotel room to put your feet up with a cup of tea or coffee. What’s that? No kettle? There seems to be a trend in many hotels – Europe, we’re looking at you – towards not having kettles. There may be a fancy espresso machine and fully-stocked mini-bar, but a good old kettle to make a proper brew is all we really ask for.

Along with the mini-bar and laundry service, breakfast is one of the biggest hotel rip-offs. Plenty of hotels charge £30 ($40) per person for their breakfast. While we do love a good breakfast buffet, the cost is sometimes extortionate, especially for those who just want to nibble a croissant or some fruit and cereal.

Rogue room-service bills, one-too-many bar tabs and a few unfamiliar mini-bar purchases: hotel bills can be confusing and vague. But as a queue forms behind you at the reception desk, it can be tempting just to sign your bill and bid your goodbyes rather than go through it with a fine-tooth comb. However, it often pays to be a pedant. Ask for your bill the night before to save yourself the embarrassment of querying it in front of an ever-growing and impatient audience.

Hotels can be annoying places for solo travellers because you're often charged a single supplement when you stay in a double or twin room. This is justified by establishments as they charge guests a set room rate. However, on the flip side, it's also commonplace to be stung with an extra charge for having a child sleep in a double room.

Dusty hotel rooms, crinkled sheets with suspicious stains, grimy showers, tide marks on the bath and stray hairs on the soap – some hotels leave a lot to be desired when it comes to cleanliness. In fact, some are positively germ ridden. We know that other people have slept in the bed, used the toilet and washed in the bath, but we’d rather not be confronted with the stains to prove it, thanks.

Why is it that your keycard always fails when you're staying in a huge hotel? You’ve creaked your way up endless floors in the lift and circled around the labyrinth of identikit corridors several times before eventually finding your room only to discover that your keycard hasn’t been activated. Back down you go…

With options to stream your own devices, confusing pay-per-view systems and an inordinate amount of remote controls, hotel entertainment systems can often leave us thoroughly perplexed. And we've been known to lose hours scrolling mindlessly through endless channels in the hope of finding something decent to watch. We just want quick access to good content and music with a clear indication if there's a charge. Is that too much to ask? Clearly.

Sun-lounger hoggers can be the bane of many a hotel stay. In fact, sunbed wars are almost par for the course on a European summer holiday. No matter how much you tell yourself you're better than that, the itch to race down to the pool and throw your beach towel on a sun-lounger in your preferred spot, can overwhelm even the most chilled-out of people.

Lugging a bulky hairdryer on holiday is annoying, but thankfully most hotels provide them. However, that’s where the good news ends. Hotel hairdryers are almost universally useless. It will take hours on end to dry your hair with that pathetic waft of air. Also, the hairdryer is one of the most germ-ridden parts of a hotel room. We’ll put up with the pain of packing our own.

 

You’ve snuck off for a cheeky weekend away with your love. Relaxing in your room, having a bath and holing up with some room service are all on the agenda for the afternoon. Or perhaps not, as you arrive to discover you can't access your room until 4pm. That’s pretty much the whole day gone. And to add insult to injury, you’re going to be chucked out by 10am the next day unless you pay out for a late check out.

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Some hotel rooms come with a ridiculous amount of lamps. And usually they're all switched on when you arrive. Doing the rounds to turn them off at night can make you feel like you’re a butler in a mini-mansion. And figuring out exactly how to switch them all off can take forever with their confusing, hard-to-turn or downright non-existent knobs. What happened to a good old lead switch?

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No matter how luxurious and cosseted your hotel room or suite feels, you soon realise that most hotel walls are thin and you’re actually very close to other people. If you’re staying next to a family group, party room, argumentative or overly amorous couple, you’ll soon know about it. Resist the urge to bang on the wall, though, as you’ll undoubtedly bump into your rowdy neighbours by the lift the next morning.

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