Back before I joined my current company, I used to work as a technology consultant for one of the large, global consultancies. In that role, I was often on the road every week for months at a time. I actually enjoy traveling and that was one of the reasons I went into consulting. In my current job, I travel much less often which is fine with me as we've now got two kids but I do get to take the occasional trip every now and then. On my last trip (which was actually just to a conference in downtown), I started to reflect on what I really need in a hotel while I'm traveling for business. I was surprised that I could only come up with four things which to me are nonnegotiable:

• Clean. The room has to be clean, which means no signs of the prior guest.

• Quiet. I don't want to hear what the guest next door is doing and prefer hotels that aren't close to city centers. I'd rather go to the places that are noisy than to stay at where the party is.

• Comfortable. To me, hotel comfort is a function of whether or not I can control the HVAC system which in most situations means whether or not the air conditioning works. It's rare that I stay in a hotel that's too cold but I've stayed in plenty that were too hot and had had to resort to opening the windows when the A/C couldn't cool the room down to below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.

• A working shower. My definition of a working shower is one that has good water pressure, hot water and drains properly. Bonus points are awarded if I don't need a Ph.D. to operate the controls.

If a room doesn't have all four of these, I'm headed back down to the front desk to ask for another room.

Some "nice to haves" in a hotel room for me would include:

• Easily accessible power outlets, especially near the desk and nightstand. (Incidentally, I don't care for outlets that come with built in USB ports as these can sometimes be a security risk. Better to travel with your own plugs.)

• Good internet speeds. Fortunately, this is becoming more common as people tend to work out of their hotels more and stream video on demand which requires better bandwidth. Though I still think some of the pricing for internet access is borderline extortion.

• Good room service. This means not only a variety of selections, but also healthy options that are available later into the evening.

• Fridge and safe in the room.

• HDMI port for the TV. This way, I can connect my laptop to the TV to watch any local media I may have.

Finally, it's nice to see more hotels jump on the eco-bandwagon. For example, more hotels are foregoing the single use toiletries and installing larger bottles of lotion, hand/face wash, shampoos and conditioners. I always felt guilty tearing into a new package when I was only staying one night. And it's also good to see hotels awarding guests additional points to their loyalty programs if they choose not to have their towels refreshed or their rooms serviced everyday by housekeeping. If the hotel is going to benefit by not having to service as many rooms or wash as many towels, they should pass some of those savings onto their guests.