Novotel tells all: From naked to naughty
SYDNEY – A decade after the first Novotel Survey was conducted in Australia and New Zealand, a new survey of in-hotel habits reveals that guests of both sexes are leaving their rooms cleaner and greener, but still ending up naked in corridors and leaving unusual objects behind in their rooms.
The Novotel Survey looks behind closed (hotel) doors, with housekeepers and other hotel staff reporting on the differing travel habits of men and women who stay at the group’s 30 Novotel hotels and resorts in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji.
Comparisons with the results from the 2000 Survey show that women are now more assertive than they used to be, are more likely to dine alone in hotel restaurants, to be the ones ordering the wine when in a couple, and are more likely to request massages from the opposite sex than before.
More women than ever are watching adult movies, now representing 12 percent as opposed to eight percent ten years ago.
The proliferation of celebrity ‘caught in the act’ videos might have contributed to a big increase in the number of couples caught canoodling outside their rooms – in pools, spas, saunas, hallways, stairwells, bars and even in storeroom cupboards – and increasingly in front of very obvious security cameras.
In each hotel surveyed, more guests are being ‘caught out’ than a decade ago and this level of exhibitionism perhaps comes from the sense of freedom and anonymity that comes with being in a hotel – but also from the increased security now in place in hotels compared with 10 years ago.
The items guests forget can also be an interesting revelation into what goes on behind closed doors and while mobile phone chargers, sex toys and lingerie are popular items picked up by the housekeepers other items are more perplexing – including fake limbs, a snake, a nun’s habit, false teeth, a two-metre hand-carved statue, and a riding crop under the pillow
Other interesting requests included a guest who asked if 33 rubber ducks could be placed in the bathtub before his girlfriend checked in; the guest who wanted the bath filled with red wine at the Novotel Barossa Valley, and the guest who wanted his room filled with hay for his farm-loving girlfriend
Ian Jarrett
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