Hotel Room Hacks

One of the thrills of travel involves visiting a new place and being in a new environment, hundreds or thousands of miles away from your everyday life, but sometimes having the comforts of home in an unfamiliar environment can be soothing and ease homesickness. When staying in a cookie-cutter hotel room, it can be difficult to stick to the habits you engage in at home, but here are a few tricks to getting the same quality of rest and relaxation as you would in your own bedroom.

Block neon or blinking lights. Your bedroom at home may be void of electronics, but the TV, smoke alarm and clock in a hotel room may shine bright fluorescent lights regardless of whether they are on or off, which can disrupt your sleep. To block out the light, use anything you have that’s dark to cover it. Black electrical tape would obviously be best, but not everyone carries this around in their luggage. Instead, opt for dark socks and hair ties to secure the sock to the device and block the light.

Wipe down or cover surfaces upon arrival. Hotel rooms can be germy places, so wiping them down with antibacterial wipes or simply covering them with the small hand towel you don’t plan to use or the provided shower cap can deter you from touching things like the remote control, especially if you don’t intend or need to use them.

Fake out the power socket. Most modern hotel rooms require a room key card to be placed in a slot near the door in order to turn on lights and operate electronics, but if you plan to leave your room and want to leave your charging cell phone behind, the power will cut off once you remove your room key. Pick another card from your wallet to insert in the card slot to keep the power on so you can leave your room without locking yourself out.