One From The Road

Posted from: Portland, OR
Next tour stop: Denver, CO

Okay, so keep this travel tip to yourselves, and don’t go telling everybody and ruining it for all of us, got it? Good…so, I’m sure I’m not the only one here who’s left a hotel and realized, days later, that I left the phone charger plugged into the wall (usually about the same time the low battery alarm goes off on said phone). That’s it, you can admit it, don’t be ashamed. Everybody does it, especially if they’re touring and living out of hotels 40+ weeks a year. And that is exactly what makes this tip work.

Everybody leaves phone chargers behind. And many of them don’t have the time or patience to get the hotel to ship the charger to them, or figure it’s cheaper to buy a new one than to pay for the hotel to ship it, who more often than not will insist on sending it overnight super express even when you explicitly ask them to send it by economy ground and then refuse to return your messages asking why they sent it a way that cost ten times as much and asking to be compensated for them not following what you’d agreed on (not that I’m bitter or anything, but suffice to say I won’t willingly stay in a Radison again, and it will be a cold day in Hell with the Dark Prince handing out free Junior Frostys before I stay in the Radison in Akron, OH again). But, you’re asking, what does this have to do with me?

Well, next time you leave a charger behind (again, this is assuming you’re on tour and still in another hotel), go down to the front desk and ask for somebody in housekeeping (or, in some cases, security) and make nice. See, after so many people have left chargers behind, these folks end up with a massive collection of chargers that nobody’s bothered to claim, and if you’re nice and get the right person, they’re often more than happy to let you scrounge through the big box o’ chargers to try to find one that matches yours, and let you take it off their hands. Just don’t forget to tip!

I found this out a few months back when the hotel I left my charger in had sent it to the wrong address, so it didn’t get to my current hotel when it was supposed to. When I asked them to check whether it had arrived, I happened to mention that I was waiting for my phone charger. The security guy they had checking for the package said that he had an easy solution for that, and took me into the back room, where my jaw hit the floor when I saw four HUGE cardboard file boxes filled to the brim with chargers of all shapes and sizes. It took a while to dig and find the right one, but eventually I did, and just in the nick of time.

So, next time you’re stuck without a charger, ask the housekeeping folks nicely, and you may just be pleasantly surprised!

–Andy

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 14th, 2005 at 10:45 pm and is filed under Tips and Tricks. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.