If you’ve ever traveled outside of the US, you’ve probably had the frustrating of dealing with the in-room electricity turn on where you have to insert your room key to have any power. At many hotels, this shuts the outlets completely, too, so you can’t even charge devices.
I just completed a stay at the Four Points by Sheraton Miraflores, and unfortunately, the air conditioning was shut off when leaving the room and taking my key, which was more than frustrating due to the heat outside.
So, here’s a quick tip
If the hotel only gives you one room key (many will only give you 1 key per registered hotel guest, that way you can’t circumvent the electricity…trust me, I’ve had it happen before), consider bringing with you old hotel keys from other hotels, business cards, or other little used cards, and you can stick it in the reader to trick the system.
Be careful, though
If you leave the room and still have a card in the reader, I’ve had multiple issues at other hotels where housekeeping will remove whatever is in there and throw it out, knowing you’re tricking the system. So, only put a card in there you’re willing to lose. Don’t put any credit cards in there. 🙂
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
As a non-US citizen I happen to travel a lot outside of the US and know the problem well. I usually do not bother to bring other cards with me just for this purpose. Just pick an envelope (or something similar) which you can usually find in your room, fold it to size, and stick it in there. It usually works without any problem.
Business cards from the hotel staff also work well 🙂