Memorandum on Hotel Curtain Opening
An internal memorandum on the universal first act performed in hotel rooms regardless of expected view quality.
I. The Behavior Under Review
People open hotel curtains soon after entering the room. This occurs before luggage is placed. It occurs before the bed is inspected for firmness. It occurs before the television is turned on to confirm that the television works, which is the second thing people do in hotel rooms.
The curtain opening happens even when the traveler has no information about the view and has made no plan to evaluate it. It happens because the curtains are closed and a closed curtain in a new room implies something behind it.
II. What Is Found
The distribution of hotel room views is not secret. City-facing rooms exist. Courtyard-facing rooms exist. A substantial plurality of hotel rooms face other hotel rooms, parking structures, HVAC equipment, or walls. Travelers know this. They open the curtains anyway.
The gap between what is expected and what is found is resolved within approximately four seconds. The traveler confirms the view, forms a brief opinion about it, and returns to other tasks. The opinion is never shared with anyone unless the view is unusually good or unusually bad. The curtains may be closed again within the hour, or they may remain open for the entire stay regardless of whether the view merits observation.
III. The Practical Advantage
The practical advantage of opening hotel curtains is approximately equivalent to the advantage of knowing, before sleeping, whether the parking structure across the way has overnight lighting. This information will affect nothing. It is held anyway.
The behavior offers the traveler a mild sense of having taken stock of their circumstances. The stock-taking lasts under ten seconds and requires no action. A parking structure is filed as a parking structure. A canal is filed as a canal. A wall is filed as a wall. The curtains, having served their function, remain wherever the traveler left them.
IV. Why It Continues
Hotel curtain opening continues because a closed curtain in an unfamiliar room is a small unresolved question, and unresolved questions in sleeping spaces produce a low-grade attentional pull that people prefer to eliminate before unpacking.
This is not irrational. It is slightly more deliberate than it appears and slightly less purposeful than the traveler believes at the moment of opening. The curtains are opened. The room is now fully known. The traveler can begin the process of mildly disliking or neutrally accepting the space they have paid to occupy.
V. Administrative Finding
Hotel curtain opening has never been requested. It has never been taught. It will occur again in approximately twenty-seven minutes when someone checks into a room two floors above this one.