What’s with the “message waiting” light on the hotel phone?
Has anyone ever succeeded in deleting it? If you have, you’re in rare company, because I’ve yet to meet someone who has.
I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve tried, in vain, to get that silly light to disappear.
Here is what usually happens to me:
Me: Notice blinking light, pick up receiver, push “message” button.
Telephone: “Welcome to hotel message service … to delete this message press #1.”
Me: Press button #1.
Telephone: “You are about to delete this message, to confirm press #2.”
Me: Press button #2.
Telephone: “Are you really sure about that? If so press #3. This is your last chance to change your mind!”
Me: Send telephone, via airmail, into the wall.
After a “waiting message” episode, I realized that the most successful road warriors I know are people who can look at the many travel challenges thrown their way and put them into perspective. In some cases it is to realize that “this too shall pass.”
In other cases, the best thing to do is laugh. Simply laugh. After all, what’s the alternative — high blood pressure?
I recently came across a great saying that sums up my new strategy for less-stress traveling: “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass. It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”
In fact, it is now the wallpaper on my desktop … a constant, positive reminder.
Doug Lipp is the author of Stuck in the Middle Seat.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Since no one ever calls me on my hotel phone besides wake up calls, I carry with me a simple item that has many uses……
A roll of black electrical tape. I cover the offending blinking light if it doesn’t go out when I delete the mesages.
And if the light bleeds through the tape, the phone goes in a drawer.
Don’t get frustrated – dial 0 and ask them to figure it out.
We had a worse one at the Radisson Mayfair in London. A message indicator that we could never pick up. Operator showed a message, every time we tried to play it, no message. Never did figure it out…and it turned out not to have been an emergency as we never had anyone say they had called and no one died or anything. But maddening.
Sorry, Bruce. I have dialed O and they couldn’t figure it out either.
Who gets a message on the hotel phone any more? When was the last time you saw someone check into a hotel without a cell phone? I mean really . . .
;-)
Same scenario as Janice-just a blinking light but know message. I could somewhat tolerate it if it had a message that came w/ it. After the greeting at the front desk, what more is there to say: we’re sorry but besides the annoying blinking red light u will be experiencing these other problems as well! Like “the man” said n a round-about-way: any message I have will come thru today’s most recent technology- the cell phone. If they really want me they can reach me there.
Same scenario as Janice. I could tolerate it alot better if a message came w/ the everlasting blinking red light. What more could be said that I didn’t hear at the front desk already. Am I going to hear: we’re sorry for the annoying red light & the many more unbearable & not-too-soon-to-be-fixed conditions that will take place n this rm. And w/ that new techie thing called the cell phone I am certain that whomever needs me can reach me on that annoying thing as well.
I saw the blinking light when I checked in, and succeeded in deleting it, after hearing the completely useless voicemail. Perhaps it was well intentioned, but I can do without it.
Hotels overcharged for phone calls for years, and now everyone bypasses their systems by having a cell phone.
Many hotels have crappy internet – I’ve just purchased a cradlepoint router to go with my cellular modem – so now I can bypass their crappy internet too. Actually my cellular connection internet is faster than the hotel’s!