"Our hotel room has a rotary phone...and there's a QR code on the wall to download a video that explains how to use it."
...and of course the QR code goes to a 404.
Previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously, previously.
hotelzed.com: "This is Hotel Zed. Hotel Zeds are ridiculously fun, unpretentious hotels in Victoria and Kelowna BC that look damn good on your Instagram."
Nothing says unpretentious like developing an affectation for old phones so people can share pictures of them on Instagram.
They've also helpfully provided a guide to using the phone that doesn't bother to mention how to reach the front desk (0? Maybe? The least ridiculously fun digit to dial on a rotary phone).
"It's like staying at a quirky little hostel- but curated so you don't have any weird experiences with seedy staff".
Could not be more unpretentious.
I would love to use my old Ma Bell rotary phones, but I can't plug them in because they apparently screw-up your DSL. But then, I don't claim to be unpretentious.
Twenty years ago when I had DSL I seem to recall you had to get a bunch of filters for your landlines so it wouldn't interfere with your voice calls. Glad to see nothing has (probably?) change there since the 90's.
I've always assumed that phones in hotel rooms are redundant now, given that (practically) everyone has mobile phone.
I see a room phone only has one purpose: to call reception.
Occasionally, for a flight significantly earlier than I would prefer, I make use of belt-and-suspenders type setups with alarms and wake-up calls.
Beyond that? No.
Based on Zed's self-description, I wouldn't have booked there - it reads like satire. Oh tempora, oh mores.
Fun fact: my hotel room last week had a rotary phone, too. And I've never ever used a hotel's phone. Not even that one.
I used to work at a hotel down the street from there. I could tell you a bunch of stories, but it was pretty well known among local hotel employees that Zed was the nicest cheap hotel in town (a lot of other ones, including mine, were seedy and dirty and dangerous with lots of violent crime/meth dealers, etc.). I would always recommend normal-looking people Zed when we were booked, and call them if they had vacancies, and they were always super nice.
Intolerable hipsters always screw things up by acting in such a way that you can't help but say "That's mighty white of you."