Sound the alarm on hotel clocks

Loved “Who’s in Control Here -- the Guests or the Gizmos?” [Travel Insider, May 8].

My daughter and I, who are both pretty tech-savvy, stayed at the Sahara in Las Vegas last year and had a memorable encounter with a brand-new clock radio.

After spending half an hour failing to penetrate its mysteries -- at one point my daughter managed to turn it on and off but couldn’t duplicate the feat a second time -- I called the front desk, which referred me to housekeeping, who turned me over to the house engineer. Three people came to our room and not one of them could explain how the thing worked.

Because the previous occupant had figured out enough to set the alarm for 5:30 a.m., we obviously had to do something. You guessed it -- we pulled the plug out of the wall.

And I was left to reflect on the stupidity of hotel management tossing gadgetry into the rooms to impress their guests, then neglecting to train the hotel staff in its use or at least, to hang on to the instruction manuals.

Bonnie Sloane

Los Angeles