Listen up, hotels! We need plugs!!

November 10, 2011

During Blog World in LA, I stayed at the Westin Bonaventure. It was overall a very nice hotel, with a lovely bathroom and very comfy beds, and I’ll do a full review to tell you all about it next week. But they were missing one thing, one important thing: plugs! Business travelers need plugs. Heck, regular travelers need plugs. Everyone needs plugs!! I crawled along on the floor looking for outlets near the desk—nothing. In order to plug my phone in next to my bed I had to muscle the freaking heavy nightstand out of the way to get to the surge protector behind it, and then had to unplug the alarm clock. But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find a plug to use for my computer. So I ended up charging it in the safest of places—the bathroom. Sigh.

 

One of my blog friends said that she found plugs somewhere on the front of the desk, so I looked there too. As you can see, nothing.

Last night I stayed in an Embassy Suites that had tons of plugs, and my blogger’s heart sang.

 

Readers, do hotels usually have enough outlets for you? I would say my luck is usually half and half.

Posted by roadwarriorette under Hotels, Travel Issues

Tags: , , ,

  1. snaphappy said,

    HUGE pet peeve!

    A friend of mine always travels with a power strip, so when you do find a plug, at least you can plug in several items in the same place.

  2. Rob said,

    It is an understandable problem though. Adding plugs to walls is very intense work and replacing lamps with built in extra plugs is expensive if the current lamps still work and look good. I don’t fault hotels for lack of plugs because this is a relevantly new problem. One thing I wish they would do when they add new plugs(lamps) is put in USB charging outlets. I don’t know what the cost of USB outlets is, but on the surface it seems like an idea worth considering anyway. It would definitely get things ahead of the curve instead of constantly playing catch up.

  3. ASuburbanLife said,

    No! I’ve found myself trying to move furniture and unplugging nightstand lamps just to plug in my iPhone charger or laptop. More plugs please!

  4. Rob B said,

    It is a problem. I travel 50-75% for work and stay in Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, Starwood, etc.. pretty much everywhere. Some are better than others… but they are all fairly bad across the board. And yes it is a relatively “new” problem for them. At the very least I’d rather see them add simple powerstrips… Until then I’ll keep carrying my portable Belkin just in case.

    http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=400738

  5. Mariah said,

    I second the power strip suggestion. Hide the ugly thing under the desk if you think it does not match the decor, but please give me a place to plug in.

  6. Laura said,

    …and this is why I now travel with my own powerstrip! :)

  7. Alison said,

    This is one of my pet peeves. Grovelling under a desk to find a plug! Here in Australia, we have kettles in our hotels/motels. Invariably one has to plug that baby in in the bathroom. Not ideal. More and more though I’m finding hotels getting renovated with plugs near the kettles and at desk level. I’m very happy when I see these.

  8. Katherine said,

    I travel with a CPAP machine for sleep apnea and often have no plug by the bed. I’m thinking about bringing an extension cord with me.

  9. Binky&I said,

    Travel with a power strip:
    one outlet becomes six;
    cheapest are under $5

  10. Elle said,

    Wow, what a great topic for a post. I stayed in that same Westin last week, and didn’t notice the lack of outlets, but I had an awful experience elsewhere later in the week. I plugged my phone in to charge overnight, only to find in the morning that the outlet did not work! Ugh. I spent the rest of the day trying to catch a few minutes and an outlet to charge my phone bit by bit. Not a happy camper.

    But it bums me out to think about having to travel with a power strip. I try to take the absolute minimum of “stuff” – a power cord is really bulky.

  11. Ali said,

    YES – I hate crawling around on the floor late at night to find that elusive socket to plug my phone into. My phone also becomes my alarm clock so I prefer to have it next to the bed. When I travel internationally, I take the appropriate adaptor and a powerstrip, so I only need one adaptor for my gadgets.

  12. Chris A said,

    +1 for carrying a power strip in my laptop bag…it has saved me from much crawling around and cursing!

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