Let me make two things clear. I like travelling and I have no problem with hotels. I usually like the hotels I stay in, whether they are inexpensive or extravagant (I've stayed in plenty of both).

Secondly, I understand that running a hotel is hard, and it's easy for small things to go wrong. All that matters to me is this: do the staff actually care one way or the other if my stay is OK? Do they understand that customer satisfaction = more trade = keep their job, or do seem to assume they have some sort of Zeus-given right to my time, credit card and custom?

Those points having been made, here are a few highlights from my delightful stay at the Lucerne:

• when I checked in, they had the wrong check-out date for me. I went over the details so they could correct the date. Two days later, during a conversation at the Front Desk, it became clear they still hadn't updated the information. I explained it all again. The next day, another conversation revealed that they still hadn't corrected the error. So I gave up.
• toilet blockage on first day. Great start. Notified Front Desk. "We'll send someone up straight away". Four hours later, rang again to remind them.
• no kitchen or restaurant (being re-built) although their rates are the same as when they do have these facilities.
• stale rolls offered up at breakfast.
• they offer to leave a comp. newspaper at your room door each morning. Failed to do so 3 days out of 6. No reason, no apology.
• they received an important email for me, which they printed out such that the entire left-hand side was missing off the page, including a crucial phone number. I asked for a more careful re-print, and was told the relevant email had been deleted. So I had no way to get back to the sender.
• 28 hours to get a shirt laundered, and even then I only got it back because I rang to remind them it was way overdue. In retrospect, I should have used the laundry just across the road.
• waste bins not emptied regularly.
• being from out of town, I asked the hotel phone operator for simple help with regard to local dialling codes and accessing 'Information'. He either wasn't able or wasn't willing to help, and gave me the 'that's not my problem' attitude.