Hotel Room Hacks

I once calculated (It’s amazing what you do trying to stay awake on a long night flight) that I had spent nearly nine years of my life staying in hotel rooms). If that sounds even slightly exotic to you, then you probably don’t travel that much!

Over the years I have picked up several good ideas that make hotel room stays a little easier, and I offer them here for your future use. If you have any of your own, please post them in the comments below.

• Take a photo on your smartphone of your room number. Many electronic key cards don’t display the room number unless you carry around the cardboard cover (which you don’t want to do for security reasons). There are few things more embarrassing than forgetting your room number and trying to get into the room that you were in 3 days ago.
• For security, put the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door immediately on arrival and leave it there when you go out for the evening. I also leave the TV  switched on at low volume. Never use the ‘Please Clean My Room’ sign since this advertises that the room is unoccupied. I usually only get my room cleaned on every third day.
• Bathroom mirror steamed up after your shower? A quick blast with the hairdryer gets you back to a clear mirror for shaving or cosmetics.
• Clothes creased after unpacking? Hang the clothes on hangars in the bathroom and turn the shower on max heat. Close the bathroom door and leave it shut for 10 minutes. Your clothes will now be steamed crease free (although the toilet rolls may be a bit damp). Afterwards, leave the bathroom door closed, since excessive steam in the room can sometimes set off the fire sensor.
• If there is a gap in the curtains when closed, you can hold them together with one of those hangars that have clips on.
• If you have forgotten your USB power adapter then check the in-room TV. Most modern TV’s will have a USB socket somewhere that will do the job.
• As far as possible, always put things in the same place in every hotel room and then do a quick final visual sweep before you check-out. Try not to use drawers and always check electrical sockets for phone chargers.
• Check where the nearest Fire Exit is, ideally by walking to it, but at least by looking at the map on the back of the door. You really don’t want to be checking this when the corridor is full of smoke.
• Finally, for the ‘Techies’ – If you travel with a laptop make sure that you carry and HDMI cable. If there’s nothing on TV or it’s all in a language you can’t understand you can always stream a movie onto the hotel TV screen.