All The Single Ladies: Ten Tips for Safe Hotel Check-Ins

Here are my ten best tips to make hotel check-ins, here and abroad, simple and safe.

First, you’re at the Registration Desk. Take two keys. If they’re not offered, ask for the extra. Take a quick pic with your phone of the room key folder and room #. Easy memory trick. After a recent twelve hotel odyssey in France over three weeks, I was in “detail overload” and this helped!

Now’s the time to address the essentials. Ask about dining options, wake-up calls, porterage. And, locate the elevator as well as the stairs. Always have an escape plan. You never know when the lights will go out. More on this later.

Next, you’re at your doorway, the key works and you open the door. Prop it open with your suitcase and check the closets. Clean? No one’s clothes are on the hangers? Seems a little paranoid, I know but busy hotel staff can sometimes offer you a room that hasn’t yet been vacated or cleaned. It happens, I promise. All good? Okay, haul your stuff in and close the door.

Then check the bathroom. Is it clean? Enough towels? Extra TP and Kleenex? Again, better ask for it now than at midnight when Housekeeping is on break. Locate the hair dryer. I swear they hide them

First things first

Climate control settings. Can you adjust them to your liking? Many are in the language of the country where you’re traveling and list temps in Celsius. Also, many resemble dashboards for a 747 and require assistance from a hotel staffer to program your preferences. Don’t assume the room will get warmer or cooler now that it’s occupied. In most European and Middle Eastern hotels, a room key may be required to activate heating, cooling and lights. Another reason to ask for two keys. It’s too easy to leave the room with the card in it’s little slot.

Locate the plugs you’ll need for your electronics, adapters and converter. I recommend and always travel with a converter and extra adapter plugs for the destination countries. In the event you don’t have the right plug, you can borrow one from the front desk or run out and buy one before your phone runs out of juice or the curling iron won’t heat. Are there USB ports by the bed for your charging cables? If not, plan your recharging strategy.

What’s free and what’s not? Are those bottles of water and lovely basket of Belgian chocolates a thank you for your patronage or will they tack on a bunch of Euros to your bill when you check out

Hello, Front Desk!

How do you contact the Front Desk? In room dining? Does the phone work in the room? In my travels I’d say it does only half the time or may require a mysterious pattern of clicks and buttons to function.

I program my alarm on my phone and use the hotel wake up service as a redundant luxury. But I always make certain I know the emergency code for help in the country I’m in (again, Front Desk will know) and the way to contact hotel staff in case the lights go out in the middle of the night ( this happened to me recently in Dijon, France.) My iphone flashlight tool was a godsend!

Find the safe. It’s usually in the closet. Open and program it. Leave your extra credit card and half your money in there and lock it. If you’re not going to keep your passport with you at all times, put it in the safe. Or put the printed copy of your passport in there.

Now go out and walk around the neighborhood. Find a cafe, the corner tabac, take a picture of the front of the hotel and note the address so you can use GPS to find your way back if (like me) you get turned around while discovering an exciting new place. Enjoy, explore to your heart’s content!