Hotel Rules

In all my travels, I had the opportunity to stay in a wide variety of accomodation, from decrepit hostels to rustic inns to glitzy hotels. Whenever I enter into any hotel room anywhere I happen to be, I always make a point to check the fire escape route which is always posted behind the door. This is important as I stagger into my accomodation like a drunk after a longhaul flight - I get disoriented that hotel hallways can be a dizzying labyrinth. What if there's a fire? Getting my bearings within the hotel is thus important even before I start unfolding that city map to discover the world outside of it. Take the time to look at the "fire escape plan" and you'll worry less in the event of emergencies.

Most often, I also find next to the "fire escape plan" is the hotel's "house rules", meant to ensure hotel guests don't behave like they actually own the room or think they are at their own home and can do anything besides picking on their noses. Some hotel guests, whether adults or little monsters, have been known to wreck havoc on hotel properties or stealing that ashtray, towel or television. Hotel managers and inn-keepers have a lot of responsibility keeping their rooms in working order and one way to at least let the guests know that they are exactly that - guests - is to impose "house rules".

Some "house rules" that I've read though stand out because they seem to have been lost in translation or they seem to be the work of an autocrat with a penchant for bureaucratic red-tape. Take a close look at the photos of these two that I took (click on it to enlarge):

REGULATIONS AT THE PACIFIC HOTEL IN PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA

REGULATIONS AT HOSTAL DON VICTOR IN PUNO, PERU