Part of booking a trip involves finding a nice place to stay. And while there are tons of options these days—from Airbnb accommodations to hostels and more, most people like to stick with a traditional hotel.
While hotels offer a lot of nice amenities like shampoo, towels, soft sheets and more (well, at least depending on where you stay), there are, unfortunately, a lot of things about hotels that aren’t so ideal.
There’s the germs for one thing—so many germs. Oh yeah, and the dry rooms. Ever notice how dry hotel rooms can be? Ugh, maybe a trip wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Not so fast. With the help of the Twitterverse, we’ve found some pretty awesome hacks for the next time you stay at a hotel. They’re all easy as can be, don’t cost you a thing and make your stay that much more enjoyable.
Keep some of these genius hacks in your back pocket for a future stay.
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Say goodbye to limited temperatures
If you’re paying all this money to stay at a hotel, you want to be comfortable. But sometimes, the options are limited. Jillian cited an article on her tweet with some brilliant advice to override the hotel thermostat. Just hold down the thermostat’s “display” button and “off” button at the same time. Let go of the “off” button after a few seconds, but keep holding “display” and press the “up” arrow. Congrats—you’re in control now! You can also use duct tape to limit the motion sensor (see above).
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Combat germs
This one is simple: Grab the bag that they give you in the ice bucket (or a shower cap works just as well) and wrap it over the remote. Voila! You’ll never get the flu from a germy remote again. (Side note: According to a Travelmath study, the remote control is one of the dirtiest, frequently-touched hotel items. Gross!)
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Keep the light out
Nothing’s worse than light streaming into the tiny cracks in the window shades in the morning when you just want to sleep in on your vacation, are we right? Luckily, all you need is a hanger with clips to solve this one. You’re welcome.
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Bring moisture back
Remember how we said hotel rooms are super dry? Because of all the rooms in the building, they typically don’t get great ventilation. With just a towel and some water, you’ll be feeling less like you need all the windows in the room open.
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Stop blinking lights
What’s worse than the little blinking lights above the smoke detectors when you’re trying to doze off? A simple strip of tape will fix it!
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Keep the power going
Nothing is more inconvenient than hotels that require you to keep your key card in the slot for electricity. What are we, in the 1900s? Chances are you need to use multiple outlets at once (how are you going to do your hair in the dark, after all?). This gentleman points out that any card will likely work in the slot, so you can use two at once. Brilliant!
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Work around foreign outlets
If you’ve ever traveled out of the country where the outlets are different, it can be a pain to find a convertor that works with your American electronics. And if you’re lucky to get one, that’s probably all you have: One. Not ideal when you’re traveling with a lot of people. Just bring along an American power strip and you’re good to go!
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Sleep better
Wake up a ton of times when you stay over at a hotel? It’s probably because the AC turns on and off at an obnoxiously loud volume. All you have to do is set it to constant, and it’ll whirr at a consistent volume all night.
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Get more food for your money
For the hungry hotel goers, waking up to a buffet breakfast is one of the best feelings. But having to shove all the goodies onto a tiny plate isn’t so wonderful. If you bring your own larger plate you can stack up everything from the pancakes to the bacon without having to go up for seconds, thirds and even fourths.
So what do you think? Pretty awesome hotel hacks, huh? Which one will you try next time you travel?