A café craze many years ago involving children and adults alike was to unscrew the top of the salt shaker so the next unsuspecting café table holder would pour the entire contents of the salt onto their plate. Over the years I have noticed a similar annoying and petty prank played on hotel guests. I have been the unsuspecting victim in even the best of hotels including the Peninsular and Four Seasons in various locations around the world. It seems this annoyance has no class boundary and can be sprung by all walks of life.
The prank involves the setting of the hotels bedside alarm clock by the previous rooms occupant. At first I assumed that the previous guest may have had a very early morning flight to catch and required a 2am alarm. But as the occasions mounted up and occurred in cities like Los Angeles that had airport curfews, I soon realised that this was not the case.
The first nights sleep in a new hotel room is always a restless introduction into your new environment. This restlessness is now increasingly so often interrupted by the mid night alarm clock prankster that I now check that the alarm has not been pre-set by the previous guest.
I was inspired to write this little ranting by yet another occurrence in a Christchurch hotel. I did the usual examination of the alarm clock however the electric clock in question required an electronics degree to work out the programming and hence I was done again.