5 Things Not to Do at Your Hotel

Home is where the heart is, but your hotel is a place where you should definitely use your head — and, perhaps, a black light. The purpose of this piece is not to strike fear into the hearts of happy-go-lucky vacationers. But every hotel guest should be armed with a degree of awareness of his or her surroundings. Hotel hazards, from falling windows to sky-high hidden fees, lurk beyond the lobby. And a bit of prevention can stop something calamitous from ruining your trip. Below are five hotel mistakes to avoid on your next trip.

Don’t Lean on the Window

Assorted tales of unsafe hotel windows have been known to appear in the news. In June 2011, a 2-year-old girl fell two stories from a hotel window in Hinckley, Minnesota. The tot survived, but was taken to the hospital in critical condition. The same week, the W Hotel in Austin shut down for a few days after several of the hotel’s glass balcony panels dropped and shattered. Four people were injured, reported the Austin American-Statesman. More recently, an 18-year-old fell from a sixth-floor window at an Embassy Suites property in Nebraska and suffered critical injuries.

I don’t have any aggregate statistics on raining hotel windows or deaths due to unsound panes of glass, but a thorough Google News search of “hotel window fall” turns up enough results to verify my theory that one shouldn’t lean on the hotel window. Ever. This tenet applies at any high-rise building, but it’s especially pressing in a place where alcohol flows freely from the minibar.

Don’t Jumble the Minibar

I’m a budget traveler who places the minibar in the same category as the hotel bedspread: there’s absolutely no way I’m going to use it. However, sometimes I’m tempted to nose around in that tiny fridge and see what’s on offer for the well-heeled other half. (I’m never tempted to nose around the bedspread, mind you.) A $4 Snickers bar? Fantastic. But my curiosity could result in an unintended extra expense.

In Hidden Hotel Fees, Sarah Schlichter writes, “Picking up an item and putting it back can trigger the minibar’s sensors, immediately adding the price of the item to your bill. On sensitive machines, even jostling minibar items as you add your own food to the fridge can incur a charge. And if you try to avoid the hassle entirely by calling ahead and asking the minibar to be emptied before your arrival, beware — you could be charged a ‘restocking’ fee.”

Don’t Drink from the Glassware

To the germaphobic guest, a hotel is a hotbed of micro-organisms left behind by “hosts” (other travelers). The remote, the bedspread and the light switches are likely to emit a telltale glow under a black light wielded by an obsessive traveler. Many a brave guest touches the remote sans Lysol or rubber gloves and lives to speak about it. But there’s one part of the hotel room of which even less-fastidious travelers should be suspicious: the glasses. After all, they touch your mouth.

I wrote about hotel glassware in How to Find a Clean Hotel Room: “There’s no guarantee that your room glasses and mugs aren’t simply rinsed off under the tap by the cleaning staff — or even wiped down with the same sponge that’s used to clean other parts of the bathroom. Yuck!” An easy way to deal with this problem is to wash the glass yourself with hot water and soap.

Travel Smarter! Sign up for our free newsletter.

By proceeding, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Sign Up

Don’t Reveal Your Room Number

We provide a wealth of practical advice in our Guide to Hotel Safety, and there’s one simple tip we mention to which all guests, especially women and those traveling alone, should adhere. Sarah Schlichter writes, “Don’t let the front desk attendant publicize your room number. If he or she announces it out loud when giving you your key, ask for a different room.” Anyone standing near the front desk in the lobby — including criminals — can learn exactly where you’re spending the night if the attendant sounds off your room number.

Don’t Ignore the Reviews

Some of the hotel horror stories we hear from readers make our hair stand on end. (Think phrases like “filthy carpet,” “red spots on the wall” and “multiple large cockroaches.” Eek!)

Sure, sometimes this sort of thing is just bad luck. But how many of these problems could have been avoided by checking out reviews of the property ahead of time? Read a few reviews and it becomes clear that, for most guests, a filthy property’s budget price did not make up for its prodigious supply of bed bugs or cockroaches. Blood-sucking bed bugs are perhaps the worst kind of grubby surprise to turn up in one’s hotel room, simply because it’s easy to take them home and end up with a lasting infestation where you live.

Check out TripAdvisor’s traveler photos of the one-star Hotel Carter in New York City. In between photos of filthy corners and cockroaches on the floor, there are snapshots of travelers’ arms, legs and necks covered in bed bug bites.

That boutique hotel you’re considering for your next trip probably isn’t listed at the bottom of TripAdvisor’s ratings. But bed bugs infest five-euro-a-night hostels and Ritz-Carltons indiscriminately, and a traveler should always be on the alert for possible infestations. One of the best ways to avoid bed bugs while traveling is to take a good look at what travelers are saying about the property online. If there are recent reports of an infestation, rethink that reservation.

You May Also Like

15 Mistakes to Avoid When Traveling Solo
Bizarre Hotel Requests from Guests
The 5 Worst Packing Problems and How to Solve Them

Editor’s Note: IndependentTraveler.com is published by The Independent Traveler, Inc., a subsidiary of TripAdvisor, Inc.