Top Ten Tips & Tricks To Improve Your Hotel Stay
From booking to getting back home, these tips & tricks may help you enjoy your “home away from home.”
Once upon a time, travel was a luxury — and luxurious! As the world evolved from local business to national business and now global business, travel became a necessity for the business and corporate world. It may still excite us — me included! — but it is definitely stressful and exhausting. Make reservations, arrive early, check bags, security lines, boarding lines — even before you board the plane. May be necessary but definitely not fun. So one looks forward to getting to their destination hotel to relax at the “home away from home.”
After having spent over two thousand nights in hotels, I have learned many “tricks” to improve the quality of our hotel stays. Each hotel is different. The rooms, the elevators, the noise, the food, the parking, the staff. Each can be an unpredictable variable. Hopefully, one or more of these tips will come in handy for your next trip.
Booking: Book early. As the hotel gets filled for a particular night, the rates go up. Sometimes, it is worth checking to see if the rates have gone down while you can still cancel it. It never hurts to ask the hotel to match the lowest advertised rate on your arrival.
Some hotels are for business travelers and are busy from Monday to Thursday nights. Others are busy over the weekends. Explore your options. Parking, Airport shuttles, Resort Fee, Destination Fee (this is a new one!), proximity to public transportation etc. etc. are all worth investigating.
Loyalty: Loyalty has its rewards — and privileges. Even first time guests can get free WiFi etc. by becoming a member of that brand just before checking in. Loyal members can get room upgrades, free breakfasts, complimentary cocktails and — my bride’s favorite — a full turn-down service at night in upscale hotels. Booking on some credit card sites can also get complimentary perks like a late check-out.
Check-in: At check-in, do ask nicely if there is a possibility of a room upgrade. No? How about a larger room? A corner room? A larger handicapped room? The Front Desk has a lot of leeway in assigning rooms. It all depends on how they are feeling about themselves, and how they feel about you at that moment. One of my colleagues says that offering some money has worked a few times for her!
Reading the staff’s name badges and addressing them by name is very appreciated by them. We all like compliments, and yours may ensure better service or even bending of some rules in your favor.
Avoid rooms next to elevators, ice machines, above bars, busy roads or housekeeping doors. It is ok to go back to the front desk to politely ask for another room. If they say “we’re all sold out,” remind them that the rooms are assigned but not everyone has checked-in. They can be swapped. When one of our close friends (couple) check-in, one usually waits in the lobby with the bags while the spouse goes to check out the room.
Sleep quality: Everyone is challenged by a new bed, new pillow, different temperature, ambiance etc. Explore what works for you to get a good night’s rest. White noise from your phone. Temperature adjustment. Melatonin. Different pillows — check these early before you are exhausted and housekeeping is gone for the day. If your blinds don’t close well, use the pants hangers — with clips — to close them.
In dry climates (Denver) filling your tub with hot shower water will add humidity to your room.
We often put the air conditioning fan on the Manual setting, so there is no cutting in-and-out noise of the Auto setting. If the room air conditioning operates only with your door key, get a second key (or use a personal credit card) to keep it on when you don’t want to come back to a hot room.
Showers: If there is no bath mat, use a hand towel to reduce the slipperiness. Run the shower for a couple of minutes to stabilize the temperature. Ask for robes and slippers if you don’t see them as you’re unpacking. These go a long way for comfort especially with cold bathroom floors. Also a towel outside the shower and in front of the sink helps avoid slipping.
Amenities: If you need something, ask for it. Hotels will usually have toothpaste, shaving cream, extra towels etc. Otherwise use the hair conditioner as shaving cream, and the shampoo to hand wash your delicates. In a pinch, I have also used cotton swabs as my shirt collar stays. I now carry a travel power strip with multiple plugs and a long cord for charging and it is always stored in my travel backpack.
My Dopp (toiletry) kit is always packed and ready to go. When I get home, I restock it and then put it back in my backpack for the next trip.
Ironing: Who needs it?! I usually put my jacket on a hanger and leave it in the bathroom and its creases get steamed out when we shower. The trousers are hung on a pant hanger with the belt — as a weight — to pull the creases out. I have also learned to take the time, the night before a business meeting, to iron my dress shirt. An ironed shirt leaves a good impression.
Safety: Find the staircase and emergency exit from your floor before you go to sleep. Also, we always wear enough clothing to bed, so that in an emergency we can rush out without looking for clothes. We also carry a small night-light as most hotels, strangely, do not have one. Double-lock your door at night. Once, by mistake, a hotel assigned another guest our room — and a key! When overseas, do keep a copy of your passport in a different bag and/or on your smart phone.
Speak up when unhappy: Multiple times we have discovered a wedding party with thumping bass music near our room. Once we checked out of the hotel without penalty. On another vacation, my bride managed to negotiate a smaller room away from the wedding — but with a balcony right on the canal in Venice!
Check out: Do take the time to make your room, at least tidy it up. This will ensure that you have left nothing behind. It also shows some respect for the hard working and underpaid housekeeping staff. We always leave a tip under the pillow after the first night and the room is then well cared for during the entire stay. Do check your bill and get it fixed, if needed, before you leave. Much easier than trying to sort it out from back home.
You are paying for your room, so don’t be shy in asking for what you need. They have often provided me with an electrical adapter or an extension cord when needed. It is the hotel’s job to try and make you feel at “home.”
May all your hotels feel like a “home away from home” or, with luck, even better!
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S. K. Gupta is a former senior executive of a Fortune 50 corporation. He enjoys researching and writing about the not-so-obvious things in life. He has traveled to over one hundred countries and is a Bonvoy Lifetime Titanium member. Feedback welcome. sk.gupta.us@gmail.com.
