1 week Ago By [email protected] (Zahna Eklund)
You'll never have to awkwardly ask for another hotel room key again with this travel hack . If you travel regularly, chances are there's been at least one moment when you've accidentally left your hotel key in your room and had to sheepishly ask the receptionist for another one. This happens more regularly than you might hope, especially if you're staying in a hotel that requires you to put your key card in a slot in your room to make the lights work.
But one woman has come up with a "genius" hack that can guarantee you'll never forget your card again. She admitted she may have been living "on another planet" as several people claimed they already knew about the trick – but for those who were unaware, it has been a lifesaver. Nia Braidford explained in a video on TikTok that you don't have to put your hotel key into the card slot in your room.
You can actually use any card you have with you, such as a loyalty card to a coffee shop or a library card. She said: "I might have been living on a foreign planet, but you know when you're in a hotel, and you have to put your key card in the thing to make the lights work? Well, my mother has taken the card so now the lights aren't meant to work. But did you know you could put any card in? How amazing is that? I hope this has helped.
" Nia showed the trick in action as she proved that the lights in her hotel room would not switch on without a card in the slot. But when she inserted her Holland & Barrett rewards card, she was able to switch the lights on and use the air conditioning with no problems. This means you can leave a card that you don't need in the slot and make sure your hotel key is always in your wallet or your pocket, meaning you'll never accidentally leave your room without your key.
Commenters on Nia's video explained that the hack works because the slot measures pressure rather than having a chip inside it that specifically reads the hotel keycard. In fact, one hotel cleaner claimed that they sometimes use coffee stirrers to switch the lights on. They said: "I work at a hotel as a cleaner.
When a room is missing a card, and we don't have a spare, we just stick coffee stirrers where the triggers are. You can put anything long and slim in there, and it will work.".
