No Muzak Please, We're British

Filed in archive Destination: UK + Ireland on June 6, 2006

Following on from an unsuccessful 2001 bill in the UK Parliament to ban Muzak - that monotonous background music that's ubiquitous in hotel lobbies, restaurants and elevators - British conductor Daniel Barenboim has launched a renewed campaign to rid the world of this particular earache, which he describes as "absolutely offensive."

The British, it seems, have a particularly rabid hatred of the stuff, evidenced on a website dedicated to the art of complaining about muzak. The UK's Good Hotel Guide also reports "More readers than ever this year complained about muzak spoiling the atmosphere in hotel lounges and restaurants" in the introduction to its 2006 edition.

Not to mention spoiling the atmosphere in your hotel bedroom. A guest at the Four Points by Sheraton in San Diego complains:

The staff could not figure out how to turn off the awful muzak that echoes through this dated, cavernous hotel. When I called the front desk at 10:30 PM and asked them to turn it off, they said that "we don't know how. Just stuff a towel under your door.

We suggest she similarly avoid the Las Vegas Golden Nugget unless she's a fan of the Bee Gees.