This Unspoken Rule About Cooking In Your Hotel Room Prevents Nasty Messes For Housekeepers

Eating out at restaurants while traveling can get pricey pretty quickly, especially if you get into the habit of doing so multiple times per day. Those looking to save a few bucks love a good budget travel hack, and let's be honest, who doesn't want to save some money? Cooking for yourself in your hotel room is a great way to save money on food while traveling — however, using hotel appliances and leaving nasty messes for your hard-working housekeeper is a big no-no.

Before channeling your inner Gordon Ramsey, consider that using the hotel's iron or kettle to cook your next meal might not be the greatest idea. It's best to think twice about cooking up that gourmet hotel room dish so as to avoid subjecting your poor housekeeper to walking into their own real-life episode of "Kitchen Nightmares." 

Turning your hotel room into a makeshift Michelin Star dining experience may seem tempting to do in order to save a few bucks, but leaving a mess after isn't in good taste. Think back to the last hotel room you were in and put yourself in the housekeeper's shoes. If the hotel did not have a kitchenette with proper cleaning materials, a drying rack, or proper ventilation such as a range hood to suck up nasty smelling odors, would you want to deal with the mess afterwards? Chances are you wouldn't.

Inadequate kitchen counter prep spaces inside hotel rooms also force guests to use other surfaces which may be unsanitary and could harbor bacteria that could make you, or the next person, ill. If you've ever seen how small hotel garbage cans are, you'll know that there isn't enough room to properly dispose of food waste that may make your room stink, causing the housekeeper and hotel to figure out how to get those unpleasant scents out of fabric, or other porous surfaces.   

In a Reader's Digest article, luxury travel consultant Rebecca Winke stresses that although TikTok and Instagram may be great for budget travel hacks, do not "use the kettle to cook ramen or the iron to toast a sandwich!" Winke also goes on to mention that cooking up your next meal this way could be potentially dangerous and costly. "You'll ruin the hotel's appliances, you'll get charged — and you'll also create a major fire hazard." While using creativity to cook up your next egg-cellent hotel meal might seem like a great idea, make sure to be mindful of your mess and your housekeeper.