You open the nightstand drawer—not because you’re expecting to find anything, but because that’s just what you do when you arrive at a new hotel room. And there it is: the Bible. Sometimes on its own, sometimes along with a travel magazine, a restaurant guide, or a notepad with the hotel’s logo. In Asia, you’ll…
You’re standing in front of the elevator; the door opens, you step into the hallway—and intuitively turn right. Usually, that’s right. Your room is indeed on the right. If it isn’t, you pause for a moment, look at the room numbers, and then head left after all. The fact that it feels as though “right”…
It’s one of those details you notice at some point and then can’t get out of your head: the toilet paper in a hotel room never just runs out. It’s folded. A small triangle, neatly arranged, sometimes with the hotel’s logo stamped on it, sometimes just a simple little point of white paper. Anyone who…
You arrive. Late in the evening, after a long day, maybe jet-lagged. You set down your suitcase, look around—and there it is. The kettle. Small, white or silver, with two cups next to it, a few tea bags, perhaps a packet of instant coffee that you’d never touch under normal circumstances. Somehow a given. Somehow…
You press 12 in the elevator and notice: after 12 comes 14. Or you walk down the hallway and find rooms 308 and 309—and then suddenly 311. Room 310 simply doesn’t exist. A planning error? No. It’s intentional. And the reasons behind it run deeper than you might first think. The number 13 and its…
You check in, open the door to your room, and there it is: that bed. Gleaming white, freshly made, invitingly fluffed up. No patterns, no colors, no regional experiments with borders or checkered designs. Just white. Whether it’s an Ibis or an Intercontinental, whether in Bangkok or Buenos Aires—the white bed is a kind of…