Note: Stupid Tip of the Day is a not-so-new regular feature of The Gate which will not be featured regularly — if at all — after today…or maybe not; but I am thinking of changing the name of this series, which depicts advice that is so well hidden in plain sight that it may seem too obvious to impart and that everyone probably knows about it, leading the person giving the advice to think that someone else might think it is actually stupid — and have second thoughts about giving it after all. Suggestions for changing the name of this series are welcomed; so please post them in the Comments section below.
“C hecked in, and went to my room, a good distance from the main building. Decided I wanted a cigarette, so went to the balcony for a cigarette, and shut the patio door behind me to prevent the smoke going into the room…..however, the patio doors automatically locked when shut, and could only be opened from the outside.
“Of course my phone was inside…..nobody was around outside as it was now 03:30…..oh yeah and the best part…..I was naked!”
Hidden in the paragraphs you just read is an important piece of valuable advice pertaining to the use of the doors to the balcony of a hotel room as imparted by Al, who is a reader of The Gate: take care not to get locked out on your hotel room balcony — especially while naked.
I am very careful not to have that happen to me — especially when I am using my camera to take photographs of a hotel room for the purpose of writing a review…
…and no, I thankfully do not take photographs of anything while I am not wearing any clothes — rather, I speak of not wanting to be locked out on the balcony of a hotel room. It was embarrassing enough to be locked in the toilet of a hotel room, which happened to me in Egypt and was not my fault at all; and this is the article to which Al was responding.
You might be wondering to yourself how anyone can be locked out on the balcony of a hotel room. It is quite easy when the door automatically locks when it is shut — presumably for security reasons — and your room is located on the 35th floor of the hotel property with no connecting balconies.
What I do whenever I am out on the balcony of a hotel room is to leave the door open a crack; and if I am concerned about insects intruding upon the hotel room, I will block the small opening — usually with the curtain or a drape.
Some doors can be adjusted where you can unlock the door; but test it first by closing it while you are still inside of the hotel room before you decide to trust it if you want to close it — to keep the room at a comfortable temperature as one reason, for example.
Of course, this advice can also apply to being locked out of a hotel room in general, to which I offer this advice: always have the hotel key — usually a plastic card — on your person. No exceptions. Do not even think of leaving the tray from room service outside the door of your hotel room while naked, for example.
By the way, Al: thank you for imparting your experience — at which you can most likely laugh now but definitely was not funny at the time — as I most likely would have been mortified…
…and thank you for your unintentional advice, which I hope helps other fellow travelers.
Have you ever been locked out of your hotel room on the balcony? What do you do to prevent that from happening to you? Please post your experiences and thoughts in the Comments section below.
Photograph ©2015 by Brian Cohen.
