So… roles in the hotel. I must say, even after only one playing, I quite like the roles. I played a 2 player game with Morgan, both of us playing 2 hands. Some thoughts:

• Some of the roles weren’t powerful enough. The Chambermaid was all but useless and wasn’t even played.
  • The Chambermaid allows a player to move guests up on an elevator. This is a good plan in theory but in practice, it doesn’t really do all that much for you. This has been changed completely. Now, the Chambermaid allows you to increase the Concierge by up to 2 points and use up to 3 points from the Concierge with no action cost.
  • The Hotel Owner allowed you to play a card twice that isn’t higher than a 3. This has been amended to a 4. Although this breaks the whole ‘no sum higher than 7′ rule, it just wasn’t that great as it isn’t even worth the same as a good draw of a 7. But by making it an 8…
    
  • I added a new role called the Doorman, which allows you to draw 3 guests out of the bag and immediately place them on an elevator of your choice.
• I liked that the roles aren’t really exceptionally powerful. They aren’t intended to be; they shouldn’t make nor break the game. The meat and potatoes is still in your hand management and choices with respect to where you place your bellhops. In fact, using the roles is costly, which is exactly what I wanted. By making them slightly costly, it balances out their potential use as a constant ‘take-that’ style of play.
• I really liked having guests start in the lobby. This adds some interest to which elevator you leave there, as the cheapest elevator can certainly bring guests to almost any of the floors quickly. It also give another way for people to get slightly easier/quicker points, enabling them to come back from a deficit easier. I’m going to change one rule due to this addition; 24 guests always must be in play on the floors or on the elevators; more is allowed, due to the Doorman. The guests waiting in the lobby are not counted toward this total.

All in all, I’m quite happy about these modifications. I’m looking forward to playing it again this weekend.