I was going to write about the steam heat at work and how it clangs and hisses when it's in operation, but I decided not to this time for a couple reasons. First, the heat in the hotel is doing really well right now, which is both a relief and very suspicious. Second, there was an exchange I had with a guest earlier today that I've similarly had with other guests before. It was about the hot water.
The guest called the reception desk. Fortunately he warned me he was going to be that kind of guest by starting the call with, "Now, I don't want to be that kind of guest, but..."
According to him, the hot water in his room wasn't working. He had an issue with his television that maintenance resolved earlier today and believed the two issues were somehow connected for some reason. He berated me, saying the hotel fell so low in quality from "its golden age" (mind you, he's maybe stayed here twice in as many years, so I'm not sure what his benchmark is). Before I had a chance to tell him to let the water run awhile longer, he interrupted by saying the water wasn't getting hotter even though he had both taps running. Instead of informing him that running hot and cold water at the same time doesn't make water hotter, I told him I'd check the water heater. He responded by very aggressively hanging up the phone, possibly in gratitude. True to my word, I checked the water heater which, not surprisingly, was working normally. I checked a sink in a room that was connected to the same water heater and, wouldn't you know it, it was running hot. I tried knocking on the guest's door so I could check the water in his room specifically, maybe also to check if the TV was taking up all his hot water somehow, but didn't get a response. By the time I returned to the desk I saw a missed call from the room, so I assume he was in the shower since there was nothing ever wrong with the hot water in his room.
Maybe it's because I've lived in houses built prior to 1960 almost my entire life, or maybe I'm proof that millennials don't always expect instant gratification, but I understand and accept that sometimes it takes a minute for hot water to get to the faucet. I think it's normal to wait with any water heater, possibly aside from tankless systems, but for whatever reason older pipes hate hot water and older people hate waiting for it. The guest who complained earlier was even in the newer wing of the facility with updated plumbing, so if he was in the part built in 1923 I'm sure he would have been able to heat the whole building's water purely with his unadulterated rage that would come from having a tepid tap for so long.
Water temperature in the old hotel is sometimes slow to warm up, and sometimes is erratically hot and cold when. Some guests have told me they had to leave their taps going for the better part of 10 minutes before the water started to heat up. Others have said their water would go from pleasant to ice cold to too hot to pleasant again in the span of the time it normally takes to shower. I mark their complaints down to pass on to the general manager and apologize to the guests, but I usually get a snide remark or scoff in response. If I were a plumber it'd be one thing to put me down for that sort of thing, but since I'm not I do my best to take those moments in stride.
It's wasteful to let water run for so long, especially being in the California high desert. I know that, but I also know the business owners aren't about to completely replace the plumbing in a nearly century-old building with high-efficiency lines and heaters. Part of the retro experience in this instance is using two gallons of water to flush the toilet and infinite patience with how long the shower takes to heat up. Usually it's not so bad and not always that wasteful, but it's honestly a crap shoot. That's part of the reason why "they don't make 'em like they used to."
So remember; much like old people exercising, old plumbing in old buildings takes a minute to get warmed up, so be patient.
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