For the average traveler, this is Motel 6, an Accor chain. Reliably clean, weak security, won't steal your credit card info, lukewarm water and tiny towels.
Now go lower. Pay cash. Get a hard key knowing others may have a copy. Bed may still be warm. Likely not changed.
I have a "crash kit" for these situations, all from your dollar store:
- Mattress cover, plastic.
- A knit cap.
- Roll of duct tape.
- Door stops, note plural.
- Padlock with length of chain or cable.
- My own hand towel.
- Quart size "Ziploc" bags.
- Leftover bars of soap, shampoo, utensils from current or prior trips.
What you are paying for is a safe place to sleep in a hostile city. The mattress cover is for the bed bugs. Knit cap to stay warm when the heater is broken. The duct tape is for the hole in the curtain, the peephole in the door, the rip in the screen. The door stops are to make sure that even with a key, you will be woken up when someone breaks in. The padlock is so someone can't easily run off with your dump bag of clothes when you are out of the room. I leave the bags and towel to common sense. Doing laundry in the sink is something I have also done too many times.
The security threat is overrated. They want repeat business. The one time I had hard trouble in such a place, the management refunded me my room night in the morning. Cheap given that I'd interrupted a robbery. No paperwork was my favorite part.
Obviously this type of travel is not for fun. It's for when you're poor or on the job. But any traveler should have these tricks up their sleeve. You never know.
Don't sleep on the street in a hostile city. Just don't. You will be robbed, as the local bad actors know the game better than you do. Don't be the New York cop robbed in Las Vegas: lost $500 and a gun he was fond of.
No comments:
Post a Comment