Checking Out Of A Hotel, Or Changing Hotel Bedrooms - How to Check For Items Left Behind

Closet in bedroom of Somerset Bencoolen serviced apartments, Singapore. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

I have several tips for you based on recent and distant experience.

1 Behind Bathroom and Bedroom Doors

 Years ago, in India, my travel partner left me to check out of a hotel room whilst he rushed off to a conference.

Left behind, he discovered in the evening, was his expensive bathrobe, which had been hanging on a hook behind the bathroom door. 

The hotel denied all knowledge of it.

Nowadays, when I check into and out of a hotel, I make a point on arrival of looking to see if there are any books behind doors. For 24 hours before checkout I make sure nothing of mine or my family is hanging behind a door. On checking out, I check behind every door.

3 Check the fridge!

Did you leave behind important pills, your packed lunch, or essential milk for coffee at a hotel or service apartment which has no supermarket for miles? This happened to us this month. 

The reception may know that you are switching rooms. However, the room cleaning girls only know that if a guest has left a room, all fridges must be cleared.

We asked reception to tell the cleaners next day. However, we lost our milk.

Here's your checklist

1 Visually check the room including behind doors

2 Open all drawers and wardrobes (closets)

3 Check under beds and sofas

4 Check inside the fridge

5 Check the bed and under the pillows

6 Check the bathroom including cabinets, shower tray and rack, bath

7 Check the room safe and any safe at reception

8 Check the boot and glove box and front and back seats and under seats of the hire car.

Please bookmark and/or share links to your favourite posts.

 

PLANNING A TRIP & PACKING FOR POSSIBLE QUARANTINE

Before packing check the temperature at  your destination.

Will you be quarantined or stuck, here, or there?

For the Quarantine Hotel
You could leave a suitcase with a friend or family member to deliver to the hotel.

You might want to mark the suitcase with your name. Photograph the case.

Photograph or list the suitcase contents in case you need to identify them or you have an insurance claim.

Note the number of suitcases and photograph them.

WORKING
You need a hotel room with desk space and two chairs.
Will you have a window or balcony for sunlgith vitamin D?
Take vitamin D pills.

BEDROOM
For a two week stay you will want slippers and two sets of night clothes.

BATHROOM
Observe what you use during a fortnight at home. For example, nail clippers. Hair dye.
Electric toothbrush.

KITCHEN
Fruit juicer.

Chopping knife, cheeseboard.

Packing List
Anything not needed at your destination befroe returning to quarantine in home country
Anything too heavy to carry
Cosmetics

Night clothes (long sleeves for air con rooms)
Gym equipment such as yoga mat and weights

Useful Websites
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/uk/london/hourly

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations
Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

Pantomime characters, pantomime dames create humour.
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations

Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

This blog has many more posts on learning languages and destinations around the world. Please share links to your favourite pages.

See my other blog
https://how2bfunny.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-be-funny-advantages-

Check the key to your bathroom or bedroom door handle

This key should be supplied. The landlord may have lost it. When you get a new key, label it. Then you know what the key is for and which door it fits. You can also do a count and see if one is missing.

Locked in the bathroom! How do you get out?

Problem
I was locked in the bathroom of the rented property. I say bathroom but it was a shower room. I shouted for help but could not be heard.

Answer
Luckily I was not alone in the dwelling. Somebody in a nearby room heard the rattling of the bathroom door and realized I was stuck.

Lock Rescue
You should have a key to go with the hole on the outside of the door.

No luck. My helper tried to put a wire through the release hole the other side. No luck. It was jammed, broken.

The door was a flimsy, hollow type. In this situation, that was an advantage.

"Stand back!" shouted my rescuer.

I retorted, "Don't hurt yourself!"

To get me out, my knight with shining screwdriver had to put his shoulder against the door. I thought the door would shatter. It didn't. The lock fractured. Bits of sharp metal fell on the floor. The door was open.

I was out!

Then it was time to ring the landlord and say the lock was broken.

I got to thinking about what I should do If I were on my own.

I would not want to keep food in the bathroom because it attracts insects. Maybe a pot of mint?

You should not put phones in or near water. But I could take in a phone and hang it behind the door.

A friend of mine was stuck in a bathroom with a broken lock when he was alone. He eventually got out by shouting through the window. A neighbour heard.

The neighbour did not have a spare key but called the security guard. It was a big black of flats and houses. Some places keep the keys. Others would ring the landlord and have records of all the relevant numbers. Others have a roaming handyman on site who can do everything from opening doors and windows to dealing with other emergencies.

Maybe the vital things to do to prevent such an emergency are to keep your phone with you in the bathroom. Also put in the phone numbers of the landlord or security guard.

Stay safe!

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Please share links to your favourite posts. More photos of the lock and keys in next posts.

No Reading Glasses - Borrow Some?

Problem - dark and no glasses
I wake in the night and go to type an idea on my computer. I should have left my spectacles on the computer so they were there when I needed them. But I was reading in bed. Now my spectacles are in another room and I don't want to wake somebody else by looking for them. Even just walking from one room to another or turning on a corridor light can be a disturbance.

Solutions - lights and reading glasses
Maybe I could install low-level lights in the sockets to aid walking to the bathroom or backwards and forwards in the night and the dark of early morning in the northern hemisphere. I should have a second, spare pair of reading glasses by the computer.

New Glasses In One Hour
In Singapore and the UK you can have simple reading glasses made within an hour. Take in your prescription choose a frame, go off for a coffee and come back and your glasses are ready.

This might work, or not work, if you need simple glasses for reading, or if they can do long-distance glasses which you need for driving.

Dark, Dawn
In Singapore and Asia the sun comes up suddenly at dawn. In the USA, Europe and the UK, further from the equator, we have four seasons and dark dawns in winter time. When get up early it's dark outside and in.

Light Wakes You
Normally the light wakes you, the dark sends you to sleep. I think the light in the bathroom is too bright. It wakes me. I should install a second dimmer light just for night use.

Borrowed Reading Glasses
Meanwhile, back at the computer, I see somebody else's reading glasses. Why not give them a try?

I first discovered this works at a wedding when I could not read the menu and somebody at my table loaned me their glasses for a minute so I could check on the choices for the main course whent he waiter came round to take the order. Problem was solved.

On another occasion I picked up somebody else's glasses by mistake. I could read - but not see at a distance. They weren't my glasses! But they did work for reading.

I don't want to strain my eyes using somebody else's glasses. My eyes are different, one better than the other. However, I want help now. Go on - try it!

Yes, sure enough, I can read and type this. I know that it's not a good idea to use somebody else's glasses on a permanent basis. It will re-set my eyes which are used to my varifocals. But it's a temporary solution to my problem. It could solve yours.

Author
Angela Lansbury, author and speaker, travel writer and photographer.

American English - British English - Australia and New Zealand

A few words you might like to remember.
USA rest room / bathroom / john  - UK toilet / loo / little boy's room / lavatory Australia - dunny

Foods
USA Jello  (brand name) - jelly (UK generic or general term)
USA jelly - UK jam or marmalade

UK - flip flops (beach shoes with toe post) - Australia - thongs
In the UK thongs are underwear or bikini bottoms with a string or t-bar at the back
So a sign at Bondi beach telling you 'no thongs' is referring to beach shoes, not bikinis

Names
In the USA it is common for a boy to be called Randy, as a 'given name'. In the UK anybody who is randy is hoping chatting up girls and looking for sex. In the USA they would be horny.

In England we refer to your maiden name (girl's family name before marriage). Surname is what other countries call family name. First name means what other countries call given name.

In Australia a sheila means a female.

In Singapore an older man might be called uncle and an older woman might be called Auntie, even though unrelated and not even a friend, just a stranger on the train or the taxi driver. In the UK this is only used by toddlers and small children.

I wrote a post a while ago about translating the words in Australia's favourite song Waltzing Mathilda.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Author of Quick Quotations; Who Said What When?