Our family took a short trip in November. We drove a few hours from home and stayed two nights in a hotel. It was the first time all of us shared a hotel room since our youngest was a baby. My husband booked it, I packed it, and my kids talked about the pool for a full week before we left.

I learned a lot in those two nights. Some of it I already knew from traveling before I had kids. Some of it I learned the hard way, standing in a hallway in my socks or hunting for a phone charger under a nightstand at checkout. I also asked readers of this blog to share hotel mistakes they regret, and a few of those answers are below.

This is not a list from a travel expert. It is a list of things I watched go wrong, or almost go wrong, in a room with my husband and my three kids. Each section is a small moment from that weekend and the plain lesson I took from it.

Walking in and flopping on the bed before looking the room over

My kids ran into the hotel room ahead of me and jumped straight onto the nearest bed. I stood in the doorway with my purse and asked my husband to hold everyone at the door for a minute. I checked the bathroom for mold on the shower curtain, lifted the sheet at the corner of the mattress to look at the seams, and opened the closet. Everything looked fine, and my kids thought I was being silly. I did find a hair dryer that did not work, which gave me a reason to call the front desk right away instead of at bedtime.

Look over a hotel room before anyone settles into it.

Putting the suitcases on the bed

My husband set our big suitcase on the hotel bed to unzip it, the way we do at home. I asked my husband to move it to the folding luggage rack in the closet instead. The reason is simple. If a hotel room has bed bugs, the mattress is where they live, and a suitcase on the bed is an easy ride home. I keep our bags on the rack or on the hard floor of the bathroom when there is no rack. My husband grumbled a little, then moved the bag. Our kids’ backpacks went on the desk chair.

Keep luggage off the hotel bed and use the rack or a hard floor.

Trusting the thick bedspread

The hotel bed had a heavy printed bedspread and a row of decorative pillows. Our middle one wanted to wrap up in it while watching cartoons. I pulled the bedspread off, folded it, and set it on the closet shelf with the extra pillows. Bedspreads are not washed between every guest in many hotels. Sheets and pillowcases are. I asked the front desk for an extra blanket from housekeeping, and it came up within a few minutes. My kids were just as happy with the plain blanket. My husband said the room looked less fancy, and I said that was fine with me.

Take the decorative bedspread off and sleep under the washed layers only.

Opening the door without checking who is there

On our first evening at the hotel, someone knocked on the room door. Our oldest jumped up and reached for the handle. My husband got there first and looked through the peephole before opening it. It was housekeeping with the extra blanket I had asked for. I used that moment to tell my kids a plain rule. Nobody opens the door unless an adult has looked first, even if the person says they work for the hotel. If the front desk calls and says someone is coming up, that is different. If there is no call, we ask through the door.

Always look through the peephole before opening a hotel room door.

Leaving wallets and phones on the desk

My husband emptied his pockets onto the hotel desk the way he does on our kitchen counter at home. Wallet, keys, phone, and a watch in a pile. When we left for the pool, I stopped at the door and looked back at that pile. We put the wallet and the watch in the small safe in the closet and set a code my husband and I both knew. The phones came with us. Housekeeping comes in while guests are out, and a door that is open for cleaning is a door anyone can walk past. I do not think most people would take anything. I just do not want to find out.

Put valuables in the room safe before leaving a hotel room.

Drinking from the glasses on the counter

Our youngest got thirsty in the night and wanted water in one of the glasses by the bathroom sink. I rinsed it with hot water and a drop of our travel soap first. A reader named Karen D., 47, from Dayton, Ohio, wrote in about this. Karen D. said, “I worked summers cleaning hotel rooms in college. We wiped the glasses with the same rag we used on the counter. I have washed every hotel glass since.” Now I bring a few paper cups from home in the side pocket of my bag, which my kids prefer anyway because they can throw them away.

Wash hotel glasses before using them, or bring paper cups.

Walking around barefoot on the carpet

I stepped out of the hotel shower and walked across the carpet to grab my clothes without thinking. The carpet felt damp near the air conditioner, and I did not want to know why. I put socks on and told my kids to do the same. Hotel carpet is vacuumed, but it is not shampooed often, and people track in everything from the parking lot. My husband wore the cheap foam slippers the hotel left in the closet. Our kids wore the slipper socks I had packed for the car ride. Nobody loved the rule, but nobody argued much either.

Wear socks or slippers instead of walking barefoot in a hotel room.

Saying the room number out loud in the lobby

At check in, the clerk at the front desk handed my husband the key cards and started to say our room number out loud. My husband asked the clerk to write it on the paper sleeve instead. There were a few people standing behind us in the lobby. Later I saw a man on the elevator ask his wife loudly which floor they were on and she answered with the full room number. I do not think anyone meant harm. I just do not want strangers knowing which door my kids are sleeping behind. The next morning, our oldest asked a staff member for towels and nearly said the number, then caught it.

Keep the room number private and ask staff to write it down instead of saying it.

Letting the kids run and yell in the hallway

After the pool, my kids were wound up and raced each other down the hotel hallway to the room. I heard a door open and a woman peek out. I caught up and had everyone walk the rest of the way. Hotel walls and doors are thin, and the people behind them might be sleeping off a long drive, or working a night shift, or trying to settle a baby. My husband reminded our middle one that our house is for running and a hotel is for walking. We used indoor voices in the hallway for the rest of the stay. The woman nodded at me the next morning at breakfast.

Keep kids walking and quiet in hotel hallways because other guests are close by.

Propping the door open with the latch

My husband flipped the metal security latch over the door frame to prop the hotel room door open while he carried bags in from the car. It is a common habit. I have done it at home with a chair against the screen door. The difference is that a hotel hallway is a public space. Anyone walking by can see straight into the room and see what is on the bed. I asked my husband to make the trips with a key card instead and let the door close each time. It took an extra minute. The latch is for keeping the door shut, not for holding it open.

Do not prop a hotel room door open, even for a short trip to the car.

Trusting the alarm clock on the nightstand

A reader named Mike S., 39, from Spokane, Washington, sent me this story. Mike S. said, “The guest before me set the nightstand alarm for a flight. It went off at four in the morning in a room with two sleeping toddlers. I now unplug it the second I walk in.” I remembered that email while unpacking in our hotel room. I checked the clock on the nightstand and found it set to go off early the next morning. I turned the alarm off and used my phone instead. My husband also checked the clock radio volume, which was turned all the way up.

Check and turn off the nightstand alarm clock when you arrive at a hotel.

Leaving wet towels on the carpet and the bed

After the pool, my kids dropped wet towels and swimsuits on the hotel bed and on the carpet by the door. I gathered everything up and hung it over the shower rod and the towel bar. Wet towels on a bed soak through to the mattress pad. Wet towels on carpet leave a smell that housekeeping has to deal with later. I also hung the suits on the hangers in the closet with the hooks. My husband took the pool towels back down to the pool desk instead of leaving them in the room. It is a small courtesy, and the room felt better for it.

Hang wet towels and swimsuits in the bathroom, not on the bed or floor.

Packing the towels and robes to take home

The hotel bathroom had soft white towels, and our middle one asked if we could take one home for the bath toys. I said no. Towels, robes, and blankets are not free gifts, and hotels do notice when they are missing. Some hotels charge the card on file. Little bottles of shampoo and soap are fine to take, because the hotel expects that. The hanger with the clips stays. The bath mat stays. I packed our own washcloths and our own towels in the car, so nobody needed the hotel ones anyway. My husband agreed and said it is the same as taking a plate from a restaurant.

Leave towels, robes, and blankets behind when checking out of a hotel.

Skipping the tip for housekeeping

On our last morning at the hotel, I set a few dollars on the pillow with a short note that said thank you. My husband asked if that was still a normal thing to do. I think it is, and I think it matters more now that many hotels clean rooms less often between guests. Our room had a lot of crumbs from my kids and a lot of damp towels from the pool. The person cleaning after a family of five has a bigger job than the person cleaning after a single traveler. I do not have a strict amount. I leave what feels fair for the mess we made.

Leave a tip for housekeeping when checking out of a hotel.

Leaving chargers in the outlets at checkout

When we checked out of the hotel, I did a slow walk around the room before letting anyone leave. I found my husband’s phone charger still plugged in behind the nightstand and our oldest’s tablet charger under a pillow. I also checked the bathroom counter, the closet shelf, and the drawer of the desk. My kids were already in the hallway with their backpacks. The charger behind the nightstand would have been easy to miss because the cord was the same color as the carpet. I now keep every charger in a single zip bag that lives in my purse when we are not using it.

Check every outlet, drawer, and pillow before leaving a hotel room.

Ignoring the exit map on the back of the door

My husband noticed the fire exit map on the inside of our hotel room door while hanging up his coat. I had walked past it without reading it. We looked at it together and counted the doors from our room to the stairwell. Our room was near the middle of the hallway, and the nearest stairs were in the direction away from the elevator, which was not what I would have guessed. We showed the map to our oldest and explained that the elevator is not used in a fire. It took less than a minute, and I slept better that night knowing the route.

Read the exit map on the hotel room door and find the nearest stairs.

Using the iron on the bed

I needed to press a shirt for my husband on the morning we visited family, and the hotel room had an iron but the ironing board was missing from the closet. For a moment I thought about ironing on the bed with a towel underneath. I did not. Hotel bedding scorches easily, and the mattress under it can melt or catch. I called the front desk, and housekeeping brought a board up within a few minutes. While I waited, my kids watched cartoons and my husband made coffee with the little machine on the dresser. Patience cost me ten minutes. A burned bedspread would have cost much more.

Never iron on a hotel bed, and ask the front desk for a board instead.

Leaving snacks open overnight

My kids brought a bag of crackers and a box of cereal into the hotel room from the car. On the first night, the open cereal box sat on the floor by the bed with the bag rolled down. I moved it to the desk and clipped the bag shut with a hair clip from my purse. Hotels get bugs and mice the same way houses do, and an open box of cereal on the carpet is an invitation. I also wiped the crumbs off the nightstand with a damp washcloth. My husband put the fruit in the little refrigerator under the counter. Nothing visited us in the night.

Seal food and keep it off the floor in a hotel room.

Having the big argument in a hotel room

On our second evening in the hotel, my husband and I disagreed about the plan for the next morning. The disagreement started to get sharp. I stopped and pointed at the wall behind the headboard. A hotel wall is thin, and the people on the other side can hear more than you want them to. We took the conversation out to the car in the parking lot while our oldest watched the younger kids with the door locked and the phone next to the bed. We talked it out in a few minutes. A reader named Ellen P., 52, from Tucson, Arizona, wrote, “I heard every word of the couple next door at a hotel once. I have never argued in a hotel room since.”

Save hard conversations for somewhere private, because hotel walls are thin.

Suffering in silence instead of calling the front desk

The heater in our hotel room rattled all night on our first night. My husband wanted to tough it out and said it was not worth bothering anyone. I called the front desk in the morning. The clerk sent someone up to look at it within the hour and offered to move us to a different room if the heater could not be fixed. The repair took a few minutes with a screwdriver. The second night was quiet. Hotel staff would rather fix a small problem than read a bad review a week later. Being polite and specific about the problem got us a fast answer.

Call the front desk about problems in a hotel room instead of putting up with them.

We drove home from the hotel on Sunday with damp swimsuits in a grocery bag and every charger accounted for. My husband said the trip went smoother than the last time we traveled with all three of our kids, and I think the difference was mostly these small habits. None of them took more than a minute or two. Most of them came from mistakes I made on earlier trips, before I had anyone small to look after.

Hotels are not scary places. They are just shared spaces, and shared spaces work best when each guest is careful and a little considerate. What is one hotel habit you learned the hard way that you would add to this list?