Most people, upon entering a hotel room after a long trip, automatically place their suitcase on the bed, carpet, or a designated luggage rack. It seems perfectly natural.
However, experienced travelers do things differently. The first thing they do after checking in is put their suitcase in the bathtub.
At first glance, this advice sounds strange. But there’s a very practical reason for this habit that many people don’t even consider.
The fact is, the first few minutes of your stay in a hotel room are much more important than you might think. It’s during this time that you can prevent a problem that could quietly travel home with you and only surface a few days later, when it’s much more difficult to fix.
Therefore, experienced travelers recommend not opening your suitcase or placing it on soft surfaces until after a quick inspection of the room.
This isn’t so much about the cleanliness of the room as about the hidden dangers that can be present even in expensive, well-maintained hotels. Many people mistakenly believe that such problems only occur in cheap or poorly maintained hotels. In fact, some problems are impossible to spot at first glance because they easily move with guests.
That’s why experienced travelers avoid allowing their luggage to come into contact with beds, carpeting, soft chairs, and upholstered benches immediately after check-in. Instead, they temporarily place their suitcases in the bathtub.
The reason is simple: the bathtub’s smooth surface offers virtually no hiding places for unwanted “passengers.”
After this, a quick check is made of the most vulnerable areas: mattress seams, bed corners, headboards, fabric folds, and other hard-to-reach areas of furniture. These are the areas most often lurking for the things experienced travelers fear.
Many are surprised to learn that the presence of bedbugs has nothing to do with the hotel’s level of cleanliness. These insects travel with people, hiding in clothing, bags, and suitcases, and then moving onto mattresses, upholstered furniture, and carpets.
Therefore, even upscale hotels are not immune to such incidents.
While the suitcase is in the bathroom, you can safely inspect the room for signs of infestation: small dark spots, discarded insect shells, or the bedbugs themselves.
The entire procedure takes no more than a few minutes, but many travelers believe that this simple precaution can save them weeks of fighting unwanted insects after returning home.