Hotels can be surprisingly hard to get a quality night’s sleep in. There can be myriad reasons – unfamiliar environment, unruly neighbours, a chink of light coming through your curtains (or, in the case of Melbourne’s worst hotel, your curtains not working at all).
Or you might go the other route and overindulge – couple an excess of alcohol with an excess of food and you might find you sleep worse in a hotel than you would have done after a night at a hostel.
Suffice to say: whether you’re staying at the Ritz, or a backpacker hostel on Khao San Road, it’s normal to have hiccups that upset your rhythm when you travel, if you’re not a regular traveller. That’s what an unfamiliar environment will do.
But never fear: the regular travellers of the internet are here to grace you with their tips and tricks to make your next hotel stay more enjoyable.
Take Julien Delvat, for instance, a Quora user whose answer to the question “what are the best hotel hacks” amassed 399 upvotes.
His best piece of advice opened our eyes to a common hotel room item that practically everyone overlooks.
That item? The clothes hangars that are provided in the wardrobe, with clips on. Though you might assume they are for your trousers (and maybe they really are), Delvat has a much better use for it.
Delvat, who says he travels a lot and is “executive platinum on American Airlines and top tier in Hilton and Marriott” said one of his cardinal rules to improve your sleep is to clip together the gaps in your curtains with these hangars.
“You might not be able to control the light coming from the corridor coming from under the door, but you can improve how the curtains block the light from the window,” Delvat wrote.
“Most hotels provide special tools that people call ‘clothes hangers’ and the beginners use to store their pants on. The secret is to clamp both sides of the blackout curtains with that special tool.”
Julien Delvat
He also shared a bunch more tips. We’ll share a couple of them below.
Skip the TV. That’s right. Delvat says this will probably end up wasting an hour of your sleep. Though this applies at home as well, it’s particularly important in a hotel as it’s a lot more tempting to start watching it, as it’s viewable from bed.
Another smart tip Delvat shared is to lock the door. Why? It takes 2 seconds and gives you peace of mind.
He also says, if you don’t like noise, unplug the fridge (or turn the temperature control down) and get your room as hot or cold as you want it (and then some) before going to bed, and then turn off the AC.
“Set your temperature a little higher/lower than what you want and turn the system off before going to bed.”
Delvat isn’t the only one online who has shared some savvy hacks for increasing your hotel comfort. Flight attendant Kat Kamalani has also shared smart advice with her followers, including which parts of your hotel room you probably shouldn’t touch, and how to hack your breakfast experience in the morning.
Not to be outdone, Reddit has some doozies too, including using your bedsheets as a pocket for your phone when you don’t have a nightstand.
Something to think about for your next trip…
Read Next