On an overnight stay at a Fairfield Inn, I encountered a dilemma I’ve experienced many times before. There was no apparent way to charge my phone.
While many hotels have solved this problem by installing lights with either plugs or USB outlets on the base, this hotel had neither. When looking behind the nightstand, there was only 1 plug, with the lamp and clock already using the two outlets. Sure, I could have unplugged the clock but I still have flashbacks from an incident from my childhood where we unplugged the TV to move it to a better location only to have the hotel staff arrive at the room to make sure we weren’t stealing it (In retrospect, it probably wasn’t that great of a hotel but we booked it for 1/2 price with the Entertainment Book). (Note from Sharon: OMG, they came to your room? We’ve been married for 18 years – why have you never told me this story before???)
Looking around, I noticed that the Timex clock on the nightstand had two USB ports on the front. I’ve encountered these in several hotel rooms and I’ve never found one of them that actually worked to charge a phone. They’re almost as useless as the hotel rooms with an iHome speaker with connections that only work on an iPhone 4.
Much to my surprise, when I plugged in my phone, I heard the charging tone. Sure, by plugging my phone into an unknown USB outlet, my personal information is at risk but I don’t think that hackers or the government is monitoring the Timex clock in a room on the first floor of the Fairfield Inn in Savannah.
To be fair, I have found a USB plug that has worked to charge my phone before. However, it was in a suite at the Renaissance St. Pancras in London. Their fancy-schmancy clock radio had a USB port hidden on the back (along with an old-school extendable antenna.) It was high-tech and retro at the same time 🙂
So I’m wondering what’s your experience with getting these devices to charge your phone. Would you unplug the clock to plug in your phone? How many people even use the hotel alarm clock anymore?
Want to comment on this post? Great! Read this first to help ensure it gets approved.
Like this post? Please share it! We have plenty more just like it and would love it if you decided to hang around and get emailed notifications of when we post. Or maybe you’d like to join our Facebook group – we have 16,000+ members and we talk and ask questions about travel (including Disney parks), creative ways to earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points, how to save money on or for your trips, get access to travel articles you may not see otherwise, etc. Whether you’ve read our posts before or this is the first time you’re stopping by, we’re really glad you’re here and hope you come back to visit again!
This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
2 comments
I’ve made use of usb jacks on the TVs a fair number of times.
Hotel clocks usually are way too bright for the hotel room but it’s nice to have for the cost involved. I try to avoid the USB lamps, clocks, etc. in hotels as I’ve had some bad charging experiences with them where it starts to charge but kicks off after a few minutes leaving you with a dead phone first thing in the morning. The USB wall outlets are usually better. The worst experience I ever had with a hotel clock was at a Marriott or Hilton property (can’t remember) where they had a Sony Dream Machine or some such high tech type clock. Trouble was this was when they changed the day light savings time dates around and there was no way to change the time on the clock manually so the time was wrong during the whole stay. Not a big deal but it just bugged me.