"My hotel room has such a nice view!! Wait a minute..."
"When I was a kid, my parents stopped at a hotel for the night on a road trip. We got to our room and everything felt off. They brought in a folding bed for me, and the blankets and sheets looked faded from age and overuse. We looked in the bathroom and there were four spider webs in the shower and roaches all over the place. My parents checked the main bed and there were bugs and hair under the blanket. We noped out of there in less than 30 minutes."
They're actually taking steps against it though by posting this stuff online.
Central Europe the same
You are correct. I usually put a business card in it to keep the power on.