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What is it about hotels and the inconvenience of their electrical sockets?

Most places only seem to have the one which is ridiculously annoying on so many levels. Some hotels or hostels seem to house their single socket in the most awkward part of the room which makes it near impossible to charge all of your needed items in the space of a night without careful planning and disrupted sleep. I mean if you need to charge your phone, Ipad and camera for the morning (which I found a needed to do on numerous occasions on my travels) well it is near impossible to succeed… Look the difference in price between a single socket and a double socket is about 50p. It’s not THAT much of a cost is it? Why not forget the £10 cost of the Bible that most people have no intention of reading* and invest in a double socket instead…Or forget about adding body lotion to the complimentary soap and shampoo pile and install that other socket.

There are some establishments who not only just have the one socket but they locate it in the most ridiculous place possible… Have you ever seen a sign in your room highlighting the danger of setting off the fire alarm if you use the hairdryer anywhere near the heat sensor? Well how on earth is this unavoidable if the ONLY socket in the room is wired directly UNDERNEATH the heat sensor or sprinkler head?

I’ve set off the fire alarm in two separate hostels in two separate continents because of this idiotic design feature. Once in the best hostel I’ve ever stayed (even with this design fault) in Melbourne and once in an ok lodge in New Zealand’s National Park. Both occasions resulted in me embarrassingly leaving my room in shorts, t shirt, frizzy half bouffanted hair and red face… But it wasn’t my fault that the only place I could dry my hair was underneath the blasted heat sensor. Did the architect not factor in hygiene when designing the layout of the rooms? That person must be one smelly buffoon is all I can say.

Like how Simba learned his lesson and avoided Mafeke’s stick in the Lion King I learned how to minimise such a situation by adapting to my surroundings. On more than one occasion I found myself drying my hair whilst lying down flat on the floor in the hope that the heat off the dryer would cool down a bit by the time it reached the sensor. I have also plugged my dryer in a socket in the bedroom while actually standing in the bathroom (housed next to the socket) with the door half closed.

Never in a million years did I expect to carry out a risk assessment on my lodgings before I used any electrical items but this is something I became accustomed to. However there was one hostel in New Zealand that I just didn’t bother making the effort. After all, when a sprinkler head (which reacts to heat) is located right above the shower head INSIDE the shower there’s just no hope is there.

Seriously… sort it out hotels!!!!

Luckily, the IFC series Portlandia has come up with the solution….

*pure speculation. no offence intended to Bible readers. 

If you have felt my pain and would like a platform to voice your opinion I would love to hear from you and publish your story on my new Plush Rugs and Bed Bugs website which is currently in development. Email clare@plushrugsandbedbugs.com with your story or any queries. 

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