The first things you should do in a hotel room: experts share their checklist
When you arrive at your hotel, experts recommend that you conduct a thorough inspection before settling in.
At the end of a long journey, the moment you step into your hotel room is when you can finally kick back and relax. Well, almost. Before you start settling in, travel experts recommend you subject your temporary digs to a thorough inspection:
- Make sure you don’t have unexpected company
Look out for signs that your room isn’t, in fact, vacant. Should you encounter another guest as you wheel your suitcase through the doorway, that would clearly be something of a giveaway on that score. But even if you don’t have immediate human company, it’s worth having a scope around for other evidence: notably, other people’s belongings.
“I know that key mix ups occur and people have entered rooms where others are still in them,” travel writer Charles McCool told an interview with AAA, a major U.S. traveler-assistance organization. “That actually did happen to me one time.”
- Ensure you’re safe and secure
When it comes to security, a working hotel-room door would seem to sit atop the list of non-negotiables.
“Make sure the door closes and locks securely, and if you plan to use the safe, check that it’s functioning properly,” Afi Anifrani, executive housekeeper at the Georgia hotel Thompson Savannah, tells the tourism magazine Travel + Leisure.
- Run the rule over appliances
No hotel stay is complete without an intense, ultimately fruitless session of channel-hopping as you stretch out on your (ideally) king-size bed. However, this endeavor is rendered impossible if your television is not doing its job.
You’ll ensure there are “no surprises later”, Anifrani tells Travel + Leisure, if you test out basic appliances like the TV, telephone and thermostat the moment you arrive.
The travel blogger Hammer Tsui says the room’s phone is first on their checklist. “I test the direct line to the front desk and ensure I can reach external numbers, including emergency services,” Tsui tells AAA. “Having access to a functional phone provides reassurance in case of any unforeseen situations.” (Top tip: Your cell also places telephone calls.)
- Check for general cleanliness
Consistently ranked as the factor that most impacts a guest’s hotel stay, overall cleanliness should be subject to intense initial scrutiny. “Fully look around, especially with the carpet and bathroom shower, to see if there’s anything dirty or damaged,” writes AAA’s Michele Hermann.
And there are certain features of a hotel room that are particularly prone to gathering up grime.
“The TV remote control is famously one of the dirtiest objects in any hotel room,” says Travel + Leisure’s expert adviser Laura Asilis. “Light switches and bedside phone handsets are also high-touch surfaces that aren’t always cleaned thoroughly.” In short: it’s a good idea to squeeze some wet wipes into your suitcase.
Meanwhile, online advice forums recommend you avoid your hotel room’s kettle altogether. On the social-media site Reddit, for instance, travelers have shared horror stories of other guests’ startlingly unhygienic use of the appliance.
For example: The kettle has been known to double up as a washing machine for dirty smalls. On the sub-Reddit “Pro Life Tips”, one contributor recalled that their former partner once found “a pair of boxers with feces left in the boiled water”.
- And on the subject of hygiene: watch out for bed bugs!
Described by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a brown insect that’s “about the size of an apple seed”, the bed bug emerges at night to feed on human blood. Put another way: Sharing a hotel room with bed bugs would represent a sub-optimal scenario.
Paris, a tourism hotspot that welcomes an estimated 2.5 million American visitors each year, suffered a well-documented recent plague of the creatures, with infestations in places such as hotels and rental apartments.
And in a 2024 survey by Sleep Doctor, 14% of U.S. travelers said they had encountered bed bugs at accommodation over the preceding 12 months.
The insects might not be easy to spot right away, according to the EPA. “They can squeeze into really small hiding spots,” the agency says. “If a crack will hold a credit card, it could hide a bed bug.
“Around the bed, they can be found near the piping, seams and tags of the mattress and box spring, and in cracks on the bed frame and headboard.”
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