Over my years of writing these blogs, I've pretty consistently devoted space to praising small elements I enjoy in a hotel room.
I've been overjoyed as I've seen full-sized shampoo and bodywash bottles replace the small mini bottles, not just because the small bottles were wasteful and environmentally unfriendly, but playing the small game of resource management they entailed grew exhausting to me.
I've also been delighted by the fact that streaming television has gone from unique feature to table stakes in terms of in-room entertainment. Gone are the days where if I choose to have something playing in the background while I write, I'm forced to watch the 17th most popular movie from 2004 just because it happens to be what was playing on TBS.
And what I've realized in my time writing these blogs — which I freely admit is not going to be anything earth-shattering or something hoteliers don't already think about on a daily basis — is I appreciate whatever in-room changes can be made to make it both more simplistic and adaptable to how I live my life. Ideally, I want my hotel room to be an oasis I can retreat to when I'm tired out by the outside world, and the more that feels comfortable and accessible, the better.
I've traveled many places and done many things over the course of working at this job, but one moment I still look back particularly fondly at in terms of work travel is the time I forgot to pack toothpaste and somehow — as if by magic — the bathroom in my room at the Hyatt Regency LAX already had an unopened tube sitting there waiting for me.
That all brings me to my new flavor of the day in terms of simple, if not new, hotel amenities: electric kettles. As I sit to write this, my room at the Tempo by Hilton Nashville Downtown doesn't have a true coffee maker, but instead has a plug-in kettle with a choice of teas and coffee packets that come with built in filters. And it's so much more satisfying to use than whatever strangely unique and overly complicated coffee setup I'd typically see in a guestroom.
The ability to just heat up water on demand in a simple and straightforward way is such an underrated amenity for a hotel stay.
Not to gush too much about this particular hotel, but the Tempo by Hilton Nashville Downtown happens to have a lot of my small favorites on offer, including large soap dispensers and streaming TV. No toothpaste, but I remembered to pack it for this trip.
Let me know what you think on Twitter, LinkedIn or via email.
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