Why have hotel room light switches gotten SO complicated? Travelers complain about bizarre switch placement and bulbs that are too dull or too bright

Travelers are complaining that hotels nowadays are making light switches far too complicated and that the bulb brightness is never quite right. 

Hotels are trying to please guests and outperform competitors by going above and beyond on the lighting department. The establishments are constantly leveling up lighting features and stylizing the lamps and features on display.  

Chelsea Zeferina uploaded a video ranting about her hotel's light fixtures on TikTok in a video that accumulated almost 4000 likes. 

'Any rational person would think that this switch under the light turns off this lamp,' she narrated while motioning to a button directly below the bedside light.

'Nope! This light makes the hallway light flash like it's in a horror film,' she complained. 

Travelers are complaining that hotels nowadays are making light switches far too complicated and that the bulb brightness is never quite right

She then made her way to a light switch mounted on the wall and demonstrated how, for some bizarre reason, the button controlled the lamp below a random bench across the room. 

She ultimately showed how a switch six feet high on a wall in the bathroom connected to the bedside lamp, for some odd reason. 

'Hotels need to include an instruction manual specifically on which switch is to what lights,' one user commented. 

Zeferina is not the only person who has struggled to navigate their complex hotel room lighting system recently. 

Ken McLain, a regional bank president and seasoned hotel-guest, discovered during a recent stay in Boise, Idaho, that the switch by the door actually turned on a small minibar light.

After he fumbled in the darkness - McLain was eventually able to find a hidden miniscule toggle on the lamp... far away from the lightbulb.

'I guess they're trying for style points to hide that switch,' he told the Wall Street Journal. 

Chief Executive of Marriott International, Tony Capuano, says that he has stayed at the London Edition hotel (pictured) - a luxury boutique hotel designed by Ian Schrager - and says he still hasn't figured out how the hotel's fancy light switches work

Eric Roberts (pictured), a Squid Games competitor, uploaded a TikTok to his account showing his own struggle with the lighting system at a hotel, captioned 'why is it so hard?'

Hotel guests are fed-up of trying to deal with the lighting situation in their rooms. 

Whether there are far too many lighting fixtures or not enough, or if the switches are too complicated or hidden, as they often are... travelers worldwide are struggling with the simple act of turning on and off a light.

'Nothing else drives me nuts quite like the lighting,' Steve McDuffie, a scientist from Washington state who travels frequently for his job in nuclear waste management, told the Wall Street Journal. 

The problems arise when hotels try to hide basic lighting necessities, like switches, for stylistic and decorative purposes.

Issues also pop-up when hotels get creative with what lights they install - including reading lights, vanity mirrors and headboard panels. 

These fancy additions only complicate things, especially when these businesses are trying to update older buildings while facing the economic realities of running a hotel.

'It's harder to get the same functionality as you can if you were doing a new construction project,' says Sarah Churchill, the director of business development for Benjamin West, a Colorado company that purchases furniture, fixtures and equipment for hotels. 

Churchill said that she had to ask her boss to show her where the rocker switch was on a desk lamp in New York City last fall. 

She says that her colleague couldn't figure out how to switch off the headboard light at a hotel in Salt Lake City, so she slept the whole night with a washcloth over head head to block out the light instead.  

Even hotel executives themselves can't cope with the impossible feat of switching on a light during their stays. 

Chief Executive of Marriott International, Tony Capuano, says that he has stayed at the London Edition hotel - a luxury boutique hotel designed by Ian Schrager. 

Capuano says he still hasn't figured out how the hotel's fancy light switches work. 

'They are charming, but we chose form over function,' he says. 

Eric Roberts, a Squid Games competitor, uploaded a TikTok to his account showing his own struggle with the lighting system at a hotel, captioned 'why is it so hard?'

Users flooded to the comments to agree. 'So true. You think you've done it, blindly waddle into bed, put the little bedside light on and the car park lights up,' one TikToker joked.

'It's like a damn light puzzle before bed,' another said.

Another asked, 'Why are the switches always so far from the actual light?' 

Kellie Sirna, who designs hotels in Dallas, says that lighting is one of the top three features that hotel guests care about, along with a good mattress and a functional space.

Sirna says, 'A room that's too dark or too bright is a mood kill and can kill an experience.'

According to Sirna, hotels have to juggle striking a perfect balance between lighting features we are used to having in our own homes and lighting that is affordable, durable and not too difficult to use.