Difference Between Standard & Superior Hotel Rooms

The modern hotel will offer different types of rooms to both attract and accommodate visitors with varying needs and wants when it comes to choosing a hotel to stay in. Chain brands and family-run hotels alike offer different rooms and amenities for those traveling alone, with families, on a shoestring budget, on honeymoons or on business trips. Rooms vary from basic or superior all the way to executive suites.

Standard rooms will offer "standard" amenities that travelers have come to expect through the years. These include bedding, towels, phone, alarm clock and wake-up service from the front desk. Superior rooms will include amenities that aren't necessarily expected in a hotel room such as a TV with cable, DVD player, balcony, slippers, room service, and additional furniture like a desk, table and couch.

Standard rooms usually have very basic bathrooms with a small shower, toilet and sink only. Superior rooms will have en-suite bathrooms that are more equipped than standard bathrooms. These rooms will include different-sized towels, hair dryer, bath tub, magnifying make-up mirror, shower and bath tub and complimentary soaps and other goods.

Another difference between standard rooms and superior rooms is both the size of beds and the quality of mattresses. Standard rooms usually offer double beds or queen beds at the largest. Mattresses are good quality, but very basic, as is the bedding. Pillows are standard issue pillows to keep costs low. Superior rooms usually have brand name mattresses made from the newest sleep technology such as foam or specialized springs. Many superior rooms offer queen and king-sized beds with a choice of flat, feather or foam pillows. Superior rooms often offer down comforters or duvets instead of basic blankets.

These days, standard rooms usually include a television with the option of ordering movies at the guest's cost. Many times the TV will be basic, color and offer the local and network television channels. Superior rooms often offer the newest television features such as flat screen, high definition, satellite channel options and DVD players. Standard rooms tend to stock basic alarm clocks that have been in the room for many years while superior rooms contain clocks with CD players and large digital displays.

Standard rooms are placed in very utilitarian locations, such as on floors without stunning views of the area and are a walk from the elevator. Motels are known for offering standard rooms whose entrances are directly from the outside and upstairs if on the second floor. Superior rooms in tall hotels are often on the top floors where a view of the surrounding area is available from the window. If the hotel is small in size, the superior rooms will be located near elevators, dining room and other out of room amenities with access from the corridor rather than outside.