Hotel guests want Wi-Fi, not a phone by the toilet

Do you remember those days when you were happy simply if your hotel room had clean sheets, a telephone with an outside line and no stains on the walls or floors?

We've come a long way since the days of tiny soap and two plastic glasses wrapped in plastic. But, I have to tell you, since reading about how accommodations are accommodating the changing needs of the modern traveler, I've recently had spasms of nostalgia for those simple days.

Consider that a hotel in Charlotte, N.C., now calls its housekeepers "room stylists."

That's kind of extreme, but you see where things are headed. In the crowded and competitive lodging industry, hoteliers are listening to their guests, and doing their best to keep up.

TripAdvisor recently published results of a survey of more than 1,000 U.S. travelers as well as 600-plus hotel professionals, asking each group which amenities were most and least important to them.

Wi-Fi Internet access topped the "most" list of both groups, while turn-down service topped the "least" list.

Amenities are a big deal, of course, since it's easy to click around on your device to compare what's being offered for what price. While a chocolate on the pillow won't scare anyone off, 54 percent of travelers surveyed said they have canceled a lodging reservation because they found better amenities at a different property, TripAdvisor reported.

The survey also reported that 45 percent of respondents said their favorite new food and drink amenities are happy hours, wine tastings or any other time with free food and drinks, and 31 percent wished more rooms would include free bottled water.

On the "who cares?" side of the ledger, 44 percent of women and 30 percent of men opined that luxury amenities were "not worth the hype."

The bathroom phone is the least-used fancy amenity, with 37 percent of respondents saying they never touch it.

When asked if they could stay celebrity-style, the top option for both men and women, at 36 percent, was to have the kitchen pre-stocked with their favorite food and beverages. A close second was the ability to have a private pool and hot tub in the room. These options beat out such diva-style demands as an in-room arcade, specific types of fresh flowers everywhere, private staff — even a movie screening room.

A recent story on hotels catering to the evolving tastes of travelers — particularly business travelers — was cited in the daily industry news brief for the American Hotel & Lodging Association. The story and accompanying video from an NBC affiliate in North Carolina noted the various "pretty dramatic changes" the industry is going through.

Among them are changes you never even imagined, as well as ones you were probably wishing for:

A hotel corridor bereft of a housekeeping cart. These bastions of the hotel biz apparently are on their last rattling wheels, to be replaced by smaller, more maneuverable caddies rolled right into the room.

That change will also eliminate the propped-open room doors, which means no more fears about passersby peeking in on your style of "spreading out" or — worse — someone wandering in to steal something.

Speaking of theft, the new system will thwart those who like to snag a few towels, toiletries or souvenirs from the unattended carts. And you won't be stocking up on the room toiletries as often either, as more and more companies are replacing them with refillable dispensers.

Other ways hotels are changing to accommodate the travel habits of today's traveler:

Hotels are rethinking their lobbies and other public areas to be more appealing for socializing, working and just relaxing outside the guest room. That's because more than a third of the business travelers these days are between 18 and 44, a group that doesn't like sitting in hotel rooms, said Adam Weissenberg of Deloitte & Touche, who specializes in the lodging industry.

More convenient places to plug in: Outlets are everywhere people hang out — check around your bar, lobby or restaurant table. It may be wired and ready for your power cord.

Tubs are dead: In a faster world, it's all about a quick shower — that is, if you can extricate yourself from those massage-and-waterfall experiences you'll find in hotel bathrooms.