Travel tips: Transform your hotel room into a home

I spent my life traveling and living in hotels. Hotels are not a substitute for home, but can be a nice break from home. Learning to feel at home’ while traveling can help travelers enjoy their trip more. A few things I’ve learned, which I’ll share here are:

If a suite is available and affordable, book a suite. “Suite” means different things in different hotels, but it usually comes with a separate living area or a kitchen. Either helps make it feel more homey’. Don’t cook in the kitchen. Cooking and cleaning is what you are taking a break from doing at home, so turn the kitchen into a bar.

Stock the bar with some basics and invite others to join you at “your place.” It’s cheaper than in the real bar, and you can buy some sandwich stuff and have snacks, popcorn, etc. Food and drinks will always draw a crowd and casual acquaintances from pool side become life-long friends.

I lived with my family in the Intercontinental Hotel in Dubai for seven weeks in the seventies. We met some friends who shared what they had learned about making hotels a home. She entertained his business associates in their room and never traveled without a deck of cards, some nice drink glasses, and her personal monogrammed coasters. Sound a bit strange? It worked for them, as people joined them for party bridge. They served snacks and drinks, made people feel welcome and had pleasant evenings without spending a fortune. I never got around to getting monogrammed drink coasters, but I appreciated what they taught me.

Probably one of the most important things I learned was, “Don’t be reluctant to move the furniture around to fit your needs.” There is no law requiring the desk to go in that corner and the chairs over in the other corner. You paid to use the room, so use it.

Another thing I learned was to request a room near the pool. Total strangers will join you just outside your room if it is near the pool, where you serve cold beer and soft drinks with chips and dips. Meeting people and sharing experiences at the end of the day multiplies the enjoyment of the travels for me, so having a room in which others can be comfortable and welcome is how I make my trip more enjoyable.

One more suggestion for enjoying your trip and your room: You didn’t travel all that way to stay in the room. Go out, see some sights, meet some people, then bring back the people to your room and talk about what you did and saw. Now, you’re living, and that is what the living room in the suite is for; right?