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Apart from our leisure travels, we find ourselves traveling quite a bit due to the nature of the hubby’s business. As glamorous as that sounds, it comes with a little bit of anxiety for me and certain rituals that must be followed so that I am ensured of a relaxing hotel room experience.
Interested in what my rituals could possibly be? I’m going to share 5 steps of what I do before even checking what’s in the room. For starters, as soon as we get into the room the hubby has come to know now (after many years of yelling this:) “DO NOT put the suitcases, bags or anything on those carpeted hotel room floors”, EVER (just the same way I never ever use the glasses in the room)…no matter how luxurious the hotel is. (staying at luxury hotels have cut down the rituals from 50 steps to a manageable 5).
Let’s get right to the process, shall we?
1. Room inspection – Examine the luggage stand for possible moving black dots – in other words, bed bugs or other critters before depositing luggage on them. If sometimes they look suspect, I usually pile our bags on top of chairs or ottomans (only if they’re leather) so I can do a full room inspection first before unpacking. Remove all bedding to inspect corners of mattresses for bed bugs or bed bug droppings.
2. Disinfect room – meaning ripping off the top decorative cover on the bed. Then douse everything with 19oz Lysol can of spray: including bedding, pillows, toilet seat, toilet tank flushing handle, tub/shower, sinks including knobs, TV remote front, back, side, lamp knobs, I also throw away the first few Kleenex sheets on top, inspect all towels for spots, hair etc… I wish they would make a Lysol ‘bomb’ that I could just open the door and throw in like a grenade before entering. That would be so ideal!
3. Exit the room – After having the room completely sprayed down to the point of asphyxiation, we normally go out to dinner/cocktail hour and let things marinate in Lysol. Upon our return to the room, I go back with Lysol wipes (or small traveling hand wipes ) to wipe down everything to a squeaky clean finish.
4. Extra necessary hotel items request – such as, extra clean pillow cases (with no stains or hair) to cover the opening sides of the pillows just to make sure there’s no possible exposure to the actual pillows themselves on my delicate face which usually breaks out immediately with the thought of putting my head on them. I used to pack my own pillow case protectors with zippers, but for the sake of cutting down extra luggage hassle, I’ve resorted to just requesting extra pillow cases now. Once I replace the bedding back on the bed after doing my inspections mentioned in #1, I sometimes turn the iron on the hottest setting and slowly iron the mattress to make sure any living breathing thing on there is completely toasted. Eek!
On this tray: Coco Chanel Mademoiselle, Maybelline great lash clear mascara, Nail oil conditioner and strengthener (old), Maybelline Fit Me concealer makeup, Maybelline lasting drama gel eyeliner in brown (which I never use as an eyeliner, but use on my eyebrows instead), MAC pink frontier eye shadow (that I dab on my cheeks and forehead for a little color only for special occasions), Pur berry pretty lip gloss stick (shown here)… you can see more of my “beauty” routine here
5. Decorate and settle in room – I now unpack our toiletries setting them into a his and hers section on the sink counter. Most hotels have a pretty tray on the counter where they leave shower gels, lotions, shampoo etc… I normally turn that into my beauty tray for my hotel stay – sometimes, even putting in fresh flowers in those glass cups they have that I would NEVER drink out of or even using one as a makeup brush holder if you’re one that travels with lots of them. Shhh, don’t repeat this out loud…but if the hotel room doesn’t have toiletry trays, I’d normally resort to using one of the Kleenex sheets as a tray or even a washcloth to corral all your beauty items neatly on the corner of the sink counter. Sometimes, depending on how short our hotel stay is, I normally don’t ever let the housekeepers back in there until we leave. This avoids them coming in with their dirty rags and contaminating all my hard work spent detoxing the room which we leave much cleaner anyway. Just request extra towels and toiletries, so you are self-contained. And leave the tips at the back end of your stay.
And now, we finally come to the moment where we can enjoy the room and really take in all the goodies that are placed in it for your pleasure. Oh, and do you believe that I still sleep on my forearms or the palms of my hands resting on the pillows so my face doesn’t touch the pillows after all of that? I know. I’m weird.*
P.S. If I had Oprah or Tom Cruise’ money, I’d send my cleaning team ahead of us to our personally owned hotel suites to get it ready with fresh 100% Egyptian cotton, cashmere sheets, down comforters, and faux fur (don’t want any animals harmed for my living pleasure) blankets. They would also replenish our well-stocked bar cart with the best imported spirits, filling each space with gorgeously rose-colored peonies, candles, covered chocolate strawberries, a tray of crudité, already poured bubbly on sparkly silver trays adorned with bright fresh red sweet strawberries, with jazz or French music playing in the background, or heck, maybe have a handsome pianist like this guy (from Under the Tuscan Sun), preferably with long flowy wavy dark hair playing some Mozart on the piano in the parlor for our welcoming pleasure. Oh, I can just go on and on…
P.S.S. I’d like to invent my own disposable toilet seat for when I travel. Who’s going to steal that idea?
* Listen, I know I’m not the only one and yes, I might be a little overboard to some or Monk-ish as my hubby likes to call me, but I rather err on caution than regret it later somehow, plus it gives me a little…just a little peace of mind.
You’re welcome hotels of the world!