This Simple Hotel Room Request Can Help You Sleep Soundly, Per Rick Steves' Tour Guide

When you're traveling, the type of hotel room assigned to you can make or break your stay. Sometimes you luck out and get a room on the top floor with a great view of the courtyard, pool, or surrounding city. Other times, you're assigned a street-level room facing a seemingly endless stream of traffic, or you're next to a family with screaming children. You can pay for an upgrade, but you still may be faced with less than ideal conditions. So what do you do if you're a light sleeper who needs complete quiet when it's time to go night-night? Travel expert Cameron Hewitt, Rick Steves' tour guide and protégé, has the perfect tip to help you get a perfect night's sleep in a hotel.

One of the little-known requests light sleepers can make for a more peaceful hotel stay includes requesting a "quiet room" ahead of check-in. It's exactly how it sounds: a room situated away from outside noise where you can sleep soundly every night. "Obviously, requesting a quiet room is essential for light sleepers like me," Hewitt says in a blog post on Steves' website. He explains that if you don't specify a quiet room, you'll likely end up in the noisiest space in the hotel. This request is a must if you want to be well-rested during your trip.

Hewitt does mention one caveat, however: "If you're a rock-solid sleeper who enjoys having a view, you may want to skip this tip," he says, explaining that the quietest rooms are often further away from the good views. But Hewitt adds one definite note: "If you don't make the choice for yourself, someone else will." 

While booking a quiet room is one of the best hotel room hacks you can do to improve your stay, you can even take it a step further by finding a quiet hotel. Hewitt, a self-proclaimed insomniac, has a method for that as well. The trick is to do your research and scour reviews to see which room is the best in terms of noise level. Most third party booking sites, like Tripadvisor, Booking.com, and Airbnb, allow you to filter reviews using keywords like "noise" or "quiet" so you can see what people who have stayed there have said. "If there are no comments about noise, I usually take it as a bad sign," Hewitt says. 

After doing your research, be sure to put in a written request. "Once you book, ask for a quiet room — early, often, and as insistently as possible while still being polite," Hewitt says. He also recommends booking directly through the hotel, even if you use a third party for research, "so I can be clear and specific about my need for a quiet room."

Hewitt also points out that the word "quiet" may mean different things for different people, depending on their lifestyle or culture. So it's important to be as specific as you can when making your request, even if you feel like you're overexplaining. Tell the staff you want the quietest room they have, on the top floor, far from the elevators, and facing away from the street. And don't be afraid to request a room change if the one you're given isn't sufficient. It might seem extra, but your sleep is worth going the extra mile.