Over breakfast, my husband, Trevor, and I, discussed how travellers might have booked rooms and meals ahead, before the era of the internet.
Empty Rooms
I speculated that, as in hotels nowadays, the best, most expensive room might be left empty for VIPS.
Dormitories
The cheaper rooms were like dormitories. The inn keeper just kept adding more people for more money.
A giant fowl or animal on a spit fed everybody. Or a casserole. You kept the casserole going and added more vegetables or meat if more people arrived.
Stage Coaches
You knew what time the stage coach arrived each day or week, and the maximum number of people it carried. Also the number of horses which would need to rest overnight and be watered and fed.
Big Beds Shared
Famously the Great bed of Ware in the Victoria and ALbert Museum in London would sleep six. Family or strangers.
Shakespeare's Saying On Beds
Remember Shakespeare's saying about sensible people sleeping straight in bed. To keep other people's arms and legs and sex organs away from you, and yours away from them.
Servants' Accommodation
Servants of the inn, and servants of the visitors, could be demoted to small rooms, closets, corridors, spaces under the beds, watching the owner's possessions, chairs, straw on the floor, attic rooms, stables where they could watch that the horses were not stolen overnight. Up in the attic. Down in the cellar. Outhouses. Under the awning out in the yard on a fine day.
Modern hotels have samll, single rooms at the back with no outlook for coach drivers. Sometimes a hotel which has no accommodation can find a basic, empty room (at a lower price) for a desperate traveller in an emergency, especially if the traveller need to stay with a group.
Somerset Maugham, Mosquito Net
Somerset Maugham, my husband rememered, had written in one of his books how he sent a rider (or even a runner) on ahead, to warn of the master's arrival.
Advance Hotel Checks
When Trevor worked in the USA, before a big conference, the organizeer's well paid PA would arrive a day, or two, earlier, to check the accommodation, (also, I imagine, the conference rooms equipment, and the food)
This cost the company a fortune. But in previous centuries labout was cheap, so sending your servant on ahead was not expensive.
Somerset Maugham travelled with his own mosquito net. On one occasion there was no accommodation. But the host had a day to build a temporary hat with a roof to keep off the rain and insects.
Helpful Hammocks
A traveller in Asia or Africa would also take their own hammock. Emergency bed hung from a tree or poles attached to walls or ceilings or an a shape from the floor. A hammock unlke a bed with legs would keep you high up. Away from crawling insects which would climb up bed legs. above, dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes, even chickens.
The mosquito net would keep out other insects. And small mammals. Cats. Catch bird droppings.
Modern Cockroaches - Worst
A released hostage kept in tunnels in Gaza told the UN how they were moved to a worse area with cockroaches.
Modern Anti-Insect - Best Rooms
In Finland every hotel has some rooms designed without fabrics on walls and floors for the benefit of allergy sufferers. If you need one of these rooms, book ahead to be sure of getting one.
Future Inventions NeededFor Travellers
In hotels I prefer to sleep with clothes which cover ny neck, arms and legs, to avoid getting insect bites. You can spray a room before leaving it.
Whe I lived in Singapore, if I was expecting workmen to arrive early in the morning, I would sleep in a caftan. That meant I was covered if I needed to answer the door, or the workers arrived whilst I was still in the bathroom or eating breakfast.
What if you have to leave a building instantly on hearing a fire alarm? Dressed only in night clothes!
You cannot return to the building to collect clothes. Or they are covered in smells of smoke, dirty soot, or water from sprinklers.
Maybe somebody can sesign a caftan which can zip up, or close with pull ties at the neck waist, hem and cuffs, to convert into an insect-proof sleeping bag. For emergencies, or travel. Even for afternoon naps on the beaach. And daytime or evening or overnight in airport lounges.
Portable Changing Cover
A portable changing cover from Temus costs under five pounds sterling (maybe postage free or postage extra, depending on whether you are a new or old customer, making a big order, have a free postage offer, and other factors. If this or something similar has a hem or you are a handy sewer or can iron on tape and insert ribbon, you could make a drawstring base.
Drawstring Safety & Security
You will want to avoid a drwstring neck which could accidentally tighten. One solution is to have the drawstring only half way. Do up at the front with a qhuck release sanp fastener and fold over fabric.
To prevent drawstrings breaking when in constant use, they can be doubled. Or carry a spare.
Temu also sells lightweigh hammocks for your garden (to try it out) and travels. The price varies from about six pounds sterling to seven pounds and a bit, in Ausgust 2025. The price varies depending on secification and colour, depending on the demand and supply of an item.
I go for fun red. Red is a reminder that it's still there and should be packed up to go with you on quitting the campsite or hotel. Green is less conspicuous.
If you are searching on the internet, the UK spelling is traveller, with a double l. Americans simplify spelling, following the Webster's dictionary, using a single l, traveler.
Lots of ideas here. Please share links to your favourite posts.
Useful Websites
Somerset Maugham
Shakespeare
Temu Hammock
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