Alarm Clocks

USA Today’s Kevin Maney recounts how a year after an article in his paper docked hotels nationwide for poorly designed, if expensive, alarm clocks there has been little improvement. Maney notes that setting the alarm clock in most hotels “turned into an ordeal. The thing had more buttons than jet cockpit. Dual alarms. Buttons that would do multiple things depending on what other buttons you held down”. On the same topic, a frequent traveler notes on his blog how one hotel in Tokyo got it right. One hotel chain that has got it right is Hilton which last year flushed out all old clocks systemwide and introduced new clock with a simple digital alarm interface for buzzer, radio wake-up and snooze. Setting it requires just three easy steps, alarm set, alarm time and enter. It is interesting that with all the attention on hotel beds and lifestyle elements in design, a simple alarm clock has eluded most companies attention. The demise of the operator wake-up call ought to have spurred a rethink on that.