Every time I go out of town, I inevitably forget something. Usually it’s something small like a toothbrush. Sometimes I improvise or I ask the front desk for one of their small, complimentary brushes. This last out of town trip, I forgot my phone chargers. Without them, there’s not much you can do. My forgetfulness made me thing of a money-making tool for hotels.
My photographer and I joked with the front desk staff about our forgetfulness. Neither one of us had a phone charger and we had three phones to charge.
The hotel said they used to have a box of random chargers, but they found they were getting old. I guess as we advance in the digital age, people are getting wiser and forgetting their cords in the hotel room less.
The hotel scrambled in the back and found an iPhone charger. Only it was for the older model phones and didn’t fit my iPhone 5 plug. Luckily, the one employee had an Android version in her car that fit our phones. She went out to her car and let us borrow it until her shift was over.
I thought my iPhone was simply toast until a staff member stopped me the next morning as I grabbed my takeout breakfast. She called me by name and asked if I was still looking for an iPhone charger. I was stunned that this woman not only remembered my plight, but found me a new iPhone 5 charger.
This experience got me thinking. Hotels should buy the basic chargers for phones, and charge guests $3-5 to use the charger for a night. I bet that would be quite the business with so many forgetful travelers. I would definitely pay to use a phone charger. Luckily, I stayed at a hotel with staff willing to lend me their own personal charges. I doubt every hotel would do that. Your choice at that point – a dead phone or go pay full price for a new charger.
Some hotels are making it a business to sell you products. Some hotels want you to buy their hair dryer, pillows, shower head and so on. I was stunned when I stayed at a hotel in Boston, and saw little stickers on all the products in the room including the hair dryer. Do people really fall that in love with the hair dryer at a hotel that they want to buy it?
There was an entire catalog full of hotel products you could purchase for your home including an alarm clock and lamp. I wonder how many of these products the hotels sell.
Instead, I wish they’d sell me a phone charger for a few hours. That’s all I need and want when I go to a hotel.
