Tricks to Make Your Hotel Feel Like Home

After spending much time in hotels during our days of being homeless, we may have learned a thing or two about making a hotel feel like home. While this isn’t easy in hotels like our Super 8 White River Junction stay or the Super 8 Groton we stayed at, we were able to enjoy White River Inn & Suites which offers a little more room to make your hotel feel like home.

How can I make my hotel more comfortable?

Today I’m going to share some tricks to make your next hotel stay feel like home. Whether you’re staying for a night, a weekend, or a week, these tips & tricks will have your family feeling comfortable in no time.

Fixtures & Equipment

The first step to making your hotel more comfortable is to check its fixtures and equipment. Many hotels have an entrance where you’ll find a seating area or welcome area, a business center, and sometimes the breakfast area.

You’ll want to visualize how comfortable this “hang out” area will be for your family and what you can do to make it more home-like during your stay. A company like https://bciworldwide.com/services/ffe-installation/ works hard to ensure a hotel’s fixtures & equipment are up to par with the hotel standards.

Hotel Beds – Comfy or Not?

We’ve slept on some pretty not-so-comfortable beds during our homeless days in hotels, but it was much more comfortable than the bench seat in my van. Making a hotel comfortable is all about perspective sometimes, like in our situation; sleeping in the vehicle on bench seats or in a hotel bed?

Obviously the hotel bed regardless of softness or firmness was more comfortable than our vehicle bench seats. Bring your kid’s favorite blanket or plush animal so they have something familiar for their night of slumber in your hotel while traveling.

Many hotels ensure that their accommodations are met to standards for their local state and town requirements. The company https://atlanticscale.com/calibration-weights/mass-metrology-lab/ makes sure things are calibrated for accurate weight and mass measurements.

Pack an Airbed

If you’re with more family than beds, consider packing an airbed. We used that for our stays in Super 8 White River Junction and our stay in the Baymont Inn & Suites because there were two beds and three of us.

Research airbeds and pick one that provides comfort, quality, and affordability so that you can have it blown up on the floor near your beds in the hotel room. Just be sure the size will fit, we had to use a twin size airbed and sometimes even that size was a tight fit.

Make it Fun

During our times staying in a hotel versus a campsite or our vehicles, we tried to make the suites and hotel rooms much like home. Since you’re not homeless, you’re traveling to a hotel for vacation, bring items like a gaming chair from https://www.andaseat.ca/ to make it comfy for the kids and family.

A gaming chair is an excellent way to make your hotel feel comfortable when you’re going to be in a hotel for longer durations. We were staying in hotels for a few days at a time up to a week whenever we could get a good deal.

We had our Wii U and other items to make the hotel more comfortable for our homeless teens. As a family who was homeless for five months but always made our teens comfortable, I can honestly say that it’s easy to make a hotel stay more comfortable.

Keep Room Secure

I’m OCD about locking doors and windows. I’ll admit during our first days being homeless in tents, not having a secure door at night was hard! You can’t lock a tent door, really.

When we ventured to stay a weekend in a hotel at White River Inn & Suites for our first hotel stay, it was nice. I could make sure the room was locked with the two locks on the door and make sure the windows were sealed shut.

Regardless of what star hotel you stay in, people are crazy in this world, so be sure to keep your hotel room tight and secure at all times.

Can you bring food into a hotel room?

Another way to make your hotel more comfortable is to bring your own food. We were allowed to bring our own food into the hotel, but I’ve found some hotels don’t allow that.

In many hotels you can find a menu of places that deliver, now that’s living large! We went from sleeping in tents at campgrounds to being able to order food and eat it at a table. That was an upgrade.

I’d check the hotel rules and make sure bringing outside food is fine. It’s usually absolutely fine to bring food into a hotel room.

I hope that you’ll take my tips and allow them to guide you forward to enjoy your next hotel stay with kids. These tips will help your entire family feel like home even though you’re out exploring new places!

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20 thoughts on “Tricks to Make Your Hotel Feel Like Home

  1. I agree with you. Being able to bring own food just makes one’s stay more comfortable. There was a time that we stayed in a hotel where the food was not allowed. We had a common area in the hallway where we can eat. It was such a hassle as there was a big sign that says being caught with food wrappers inside the room will be penalized.

  2. I think hotel beds are comfy, but I still find it hard getting a restful sleep. Maybe because I know it is not my bed? I don’t know but it does seem that way. I think the next time we do a staycation, I will bring something, like my teddy bear (yes, I still have a teddy bear at my age) with me. Having something that reminds me of home would help fight the homesickness.

  3. I think most hotel bed are so comfy. I also ask for an extra blanket and robe to make me feel more at home in hotels.

  4. I’ve never thought of doing this before. There is no better feeling than being at home. Definitely considering all of these!

  5. These are some great tips. I like to have my own pillow and blanket (if it’s a road trip) and definitely have food that’s not from the vending machine.

  6. My daughter had to live in a hotel for a month due to a house fire. These tips would been so helpful. Share this with the fire department to hand out to fire victims!

  7. Oh, so sorry you had to stay in a Hotel for so long!
    What kind of device is pictured in the “Keeping the Room secure” section? Is it a tool for windows?

    1. It is a tool for keeping your hotel door locked, the image is clickable to product description 🙂

  8. The comfort of the beds! That’s the most important aspect to me. Many times, I ask beforehand, my hosts about the state of their beds and fittings! Then, I come by well prepared.

  9. A hotel bed to me always starts out exciting (I can’t wait to sleep in a comfy hotel bed!), but then it becomes disappointing, as they’re not what I was expecting. Perhaps a more “homey” feel is what I need.

  10. these are great tips. i love the idea of bringing the wii u for the teens to use. that’s so cool that it is transportable. joy

  11. Those are all great tips! My problem is I can’t fall asleep without my fan lol and the hotel pillows are not very good usually. So if I drive, I definitely bring my fan and my Tempurpedic pillow. lol If I fly I just don’t get a good nights rest no matter how luxurious or expensive the room.

  12. These are all great tips! I travel a lot, and I know first-hand that some hotels need a little help feeling homey. Love this.

  13. I always love hotels that offer eat-out delivery menus. I used to stayed in a hotel around Toronto airport for a few days and there is no restaurants nearby, but the hotel has delivery menus, which made my stay more fun and enjoyable. Another tips to add is to choose a hotel with free breakfast

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