Article: The “Idiot Check” I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room

[conventdweller1]

The “Idiot Check” I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

The "Idiot Check" I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room

Leaving something behind in a hotel room makes me feel like an idiot. So before checking out, I always do a final "idiot check". What are your hotel habits?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

I always travel with my own clean and comfortable pillow, that doesn't make me sneeze! After forgetting 2, over time, I now put them in a brightly coloured pillow case.

 

[Journeyman]

The “Idiot Check” I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

The "Idiot Check" I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room

Leaving something behind in a hotel room makes me feel like an idiot. So before checking out, I always do a final "idiot check". What are your hotel habits?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

All makes good sense. The one thing that still seems to evade my last minute checks is my bathroom nighlight. I hate having to enter a bathroom lit up like an operating theatre at night when I go for a P so I travel with an inobtrusive little plug in night-lite. Alas I continue to donate the odd ones to hotels. I TRY to remember on my last morning and visit to bathroom to immediately chuck it in my case.

Now if hotels put a nice low/variable light in their bathrooms I would not have this problem. Hello Accor, IhG, Hilton, etc. !

 

[Beano]

I wouldn't say it was an "Idiot Check": it is the most sensible thing to do, as I do.
Unfortunately not always followed through!

I left a small plastic bag (one of those used for the 100 ml liquids at airport security) filled with various medication (not critical). I called the hotel who said they could keep it for me. It was an IC and I don't usually stay there so I told them to dispose of it. I was back next month, when I could have picked it up, with a new bag! I didn't leave that one.

Another time I left a sponge bag with toiletries in a motel in NZ when I was living in the UK. A contact in NZ picked it up and I was reunited with it a year later when I returned permanently.

 

[Vaa]

I always have a laminated printed list( A4page) which I leave at the door the night before I leave. Item eg, 1. Safe. 2 bathroom, . draws, wardrobes, 4 . The number of cables I am travelling with. That final physical check sounds basic but you need memory help especially when leaving at 5 am for an early flight! It’s a small , easy discipline to help one focus at the last minute.

 

[Beano]

I often put things into the fridge, so I usually put an item on the door. When I scan the room before I go, it stands out to remind me.

 

[Quickstatus]

I often leave things behind deliberately.
Once I left a microwave behind - deliberately

 

[QFFHntrGthr]

I do one of two things before I leave a hotel room.. When I leave something somewhere I don't normally, because of the hotel room layout, I write a note/checklist to remind myself (I leave the note on the top, inside my bag).
The other is 'Waltering' the room, if I may adopt the term.
Re pulling the sheets and doona back off the bed, it brings to mind an incident many² years ago. My then fiance and I (both at uni) did a package tour of the South Island NZ. At the Commodore Christchurch, we were each given a tour bag at the welcome drinks the night before. She decided to pack our jumpers in one of the new bag.
When we boarded the tour bus, the driver/tour leader observed the loaded bag she was carrying. Our departure was somewhat delayed. Unbeknownst to me then, he notfied the hotel we may have pilfered from the room.
A thorough check of our room for any missing items was conducted. The manager came back to the bus a long time later and told him everthing was as it should have been. Then she added, they must have been hard at it because the top sheet and blankets (yes in those days) were off the bed.
I will never forget his response to that (just because we were young on a bus otherwise occupied by retirees). He said to her straight faced, 'Do you want me to send them back to the room to make the bed up'. Luckily for us, she replied aghast "oh no, we have to strip the bed to change the sheets anyway. In fact they did us a favour half stripping the bed '. There you go, be aware what the inference from small minded people might be if the top sheet et al is not where they expect.

 

[Travellin Wilbury]

The “Idiot Check” I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

The "Idiot Check" I Do Before Leaving Any Hotel Room

Leaving something behind in a hotel room makes me feel like an idiot. So before checking out, I always do a final "idiot check". What are your hotel habits?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

We have idiot-check out habits that involve emptying the safe as the first step and leaving the door of it wide open. After this its a double room scan - husband first and then I go through and around it and we do a verbal checklist of items like cables, toiletries and wardrobe items.
On arrival we check the bar fridge and all product items to ensure no empty packets or opened packets. Been caught this way before.

 

[SYD]

I often leave things behind deliberately.
Once I left a microwave behind - deliberately

Especially when there’s a price list of *everything* in the room sitting on the table….

 

[Quickstatus]

Especially when there’s a price list of *everything* in the room sitting on the table….

The microwave was bought by me....
But yes, people should also do a once over "idiot check" to make sure they don't "inadvertently" take a Hotel pillow.

 

[Captain Halliday]

When travelling together, we literally say “disarm doors and cross check” before leaving

ie nothing in the safe, cupboards, bathroom etc.

Ha!

It’s the “before departure checklist” for us.

Me: “Safe.”
Miss H: “Check.”
Me: “Under bed.”
Miss H: “Check”
…And so on.

But I really like disarm doors and cross check.

 

[Noah Count]

I just 'idiot check' with MrsN i.e. have you left anything behind. She will normally run back in and do a re check.

 

[jeza]

Start from the balcony, tend to put athletic “smelly “ shoes out there and it’s often the furthest point from the entrance to your room/ apartment. Left a favourite tshirt on the balcony of a Airbnb in Portugal once so lesson learned.

 

[PineappleSkip]

When travelling together, we literally say “disarm doors and cross check” before leaving

Beat me to it! Captain Pineapple’s announcement to First Officer Mrs Pineapple is ‘prepare for departure and cross check!’ We then both separately check wardrobe, fridge, bathroom, shower cubicle, bedside and wherever the sneaky charger has been hidden.

I used to tell the kids ‘arm doors and cross check’ before we drove off. That was back in the days of manual car door locks.

However when it comes to losing things it’s usually little in ear headphones on leaving planes. I switched to big over ear headphones, but have managed to lose a couple of them too.

 

[Beer_budget]

I have left a couple of (favourite, unfortunately) work shirts in an AirBnB once. I did not usually unpack my suitcase back then so the wardrobe was not on my checklist. Host denied finding them so I guess the cleaner was a size 10.

On the other hand I had to take an air conditioner remote back to a hotel once because my boss had accidentally packed it on his departure