--- title: Clever Hotel Hack Got Twitter To Shared Its Best Travel Tips description: Even Elon Musk was impressed with the travel tips shared on Twitter. canonical: https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-10-07T14:59:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:30.280Z og:title: Clever Hotel Hack Got Everyone Sharing Their Favorite Travel Tips og:description: Impressive life savers og:url: https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb20ed00a613fea53/698a03e5929fadd505bf5049/hotelcloset.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2121 og:image:height: 1193 og:image:alt: Wooden closet hangers in a hotel room og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clever Hotel Hack Got Everyone Sharing Their Favorite Travel Tips twitter:description: Impressive life savers twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb20ed00a613fea53/698a03e5929fadd505bf5049/hotelcloset.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A Clever Hotel Hack Got People Sharing Their Favorite Travel Tips > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 7, 2019 2:59 PM UTC  Zen Rial&Getty Images by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Oct 7, 2019 2:59 PM UTC If you spend enough time in [hotel](https://time.com/5690499/sushi-nakazawa-michelin-star/) rooms, you may start to wonder if the people who designed the rooms ever actually stayed in them. How else would no one notice that the curtains don’t fully close so the moment the sun rises the light shines right on the bed? Or that even when the lights are off, the alarm clock manages to illuminate the room better than the bedside lamp? Luckily for every hotel room foible, there’s some intrepid [traveler](https://time.com/collection/worlds-greatest-places-2019/) who has come up with an ingenious solution for the problem and thanks to a recent Twitter thread, those hacks are out in the world. It all started when Rick Klau, a senior operating partner at GV (formerly Google Ventures), posted a clever tip he came across to use the clips on a hotel hanger to close that pesky gap inevitably present in hotel curtains: > [](https://twitter.com/rklau/status/1179965234624286721) The clever hack inspired other travel hackers to share their own tips to make hotel stays a little more pleasant. Even Tesla and Space X founder Elon Musk [was impressed](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1180165032690233345) with the list of tips that resulted from the thread. This trick works well for poorly-placed air conditioning or heating units: > [](https://twitter.com/%5Fj%5Fo%5Fe/status/1180019970001887232) Wrapping the remote in the free shower caps is a great tip for [germaphobes](https://time.com/5135121/dirty-hotel-rooms-germs/): > [](https://twitter.com/melmor86/status/1180002042015666176) If you need the shower cap for your showers, use the ice bucket bag instead: > [](https://twitter.com/ChipBrown/status/1180125626130407425) Hotels have a funny habit of charging guests for water in their rooms, but doling it out for free in the gym: > [](https://twitter.com/naywilliams/status/1179966334743957504) If you’re a road warrior stuck working in a hotel room, this tip could help: > [](https://twitter.com/acroll/status/1179965882270961664) This is a great use for those low-balance gift cards taking up space in your wallet: > [](https://twitter.com/JanaHisham/status/1180128949080338433) Speaking of electricity, if all those in-room gadgets end up keeping you up at night with their bright lights, try this: > [](https://twitter.com/dmagliola/status/1180175441568681984) If you forgot a charger, don’t suffer in silence. Instead talk to the front desk: > [](https://twitter.com/vinylrabbit/status/1179977019334881281) If you want to keep your drinks cold without constantly running to the ice machine, using the laundry bag as an ersatz ice chest is a great option: > [](https://twitter.com/jonnywizard/status/1179983683215736833) Travelers who want to do a little good in the world will appreciate this idea: > [](https://twitter.com/007willreturn/status/1180272774289297408) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/"},"headline":"A Clever Hotel Hack Got People Sharing Their Favorite Travel Tips","datePublished":"2019-10-07T14:59:40.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:30.280Z","description":"Even Elon Musk was impressed with the travel tips shared on Twitter","url":"https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","twitter","Travel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb20ed00a613fea53/698a03e5929fadd505bf5049/hotelcloset.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb20ed00a613fea53/698a03e5929fadd505bf5049/hotelcloset.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Wooden closet hangers in a hotel room","caption":"Wooden closet hangers in a hotel room","creditText":"Zen Rial&Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5693994/hotel-hack/","name":"A Clever Hotel Hack Got People Sharing Their Favorite Travel Tips"}}]}] ```