A currently underexplored proxy to the hydrogen bond structure and energy of microhydrates is the wavenumber of the hydrogen-bonded OH stretching vibration νOH b of any docking water serving as a hydrogen bond donor . As a single number for a given monohydrate complex which can be derived from vibrational spectroscopy in a straightforward way, it offers a set of advantages over more demanding structural studies. For multifunctional substrates, linear IR and Raman spectroscopy can provide an immediate survey over competing hydrogen bond docking sites due to the simplicity and intensity of the vibrational fingerprint of the OH group .