Do hotels and motels provide intimate lighting to promote romance; are they saving power by cutting down on lighting or is it just poor design?
I’ve found myself blundering round in inadequate lighting, peering into semi darkness in every room I’ve stayed in recently.
None of them had a single light which provided sufficient illumination by itself. The problem is exacerbated when there is no central control for all the lights so each has to be turned on and off individually.
The worst was a hotel in Wellington. The room had a small wall light in the entrance, a lamp either side of the bed, another lamp in the corner, a light in the tea & coffee cubby hole, another over the desk and one in the wardrobe. When I turned all of them on I still couldn’t see to read easily.
It’s possible that low lighting has always been the norm for hotels and motels and I”m just noticing it more now that my eyes require better light for reading than they used to.
There are no doubt times intimate lighting is desirable when you’re staying away from home, but it would be better if that could be a matter of choice and not the default setting.
Homepaddock 
It’s so you can’t see how crappy the room is – all the marks on the wall, poorly fitted joinery etc etc is hidden by the bad lighting. If they had proper lights you’d probably walk straight back out again once you saw what your money was really buying.
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I’ve noticed this too, even in non-crappy rooms. And having tons of individual lights is also common in my experience. Its odd that they skimp on the operating costs (decent sized bulbs) having laid out all that capital.
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Yep,even very good rooms often have lots of little lights and still leave you with not quite enough illumination to see well.
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Imagine how much worse it could have been if eco-bulbs had to be used. You’d need to wait until they warmed up before you could see anything at all! Perhaps you could just stay longer in the bar…
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