Hotel Room Light Switches: The Escape Room Nobody Asked For

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Turning on the lights in a hotel room shouldn’t feel like solving a puzzle. Yet somehow it always does. You flip the switch by the door and—nothing. Well, not nothing, but usually just the hallway light. Meanwhile, every lamp you actually need is still dark.

That’s when the scavenger hunt begins. One switch on the cord, another hidden behind the headboard, maybe even a mystery foot pedal on the floor. At a certain point, it stops feeling like travel and starts feeling like an escape room nobody asked to play.

Level 1: The Rookie Switch

These are beginner-level rooms. There are only a few lamps, and there are only a few ways to turn them on. The new trend is not to have a switch on a table lamp but to put a switch on the electrical cord. Once you learn that trick, you’re set.

Level 2: The Hidden Floor Pedal Trap

This one stumped me for a while, I looked at the lamp in the corner and couldn’t find any way to turn it on. The hidden trick is that the switch is often located on the floor as a foot pedal. This makes little sense as these lamps are usually placed behind furniture, which makes it awkward to turn it on and off.

Level 3: The Headboard Boss Battle

Once you’ve learned about the light switch on the cord and the floor switch for standing lamps, now it’s time to get to the tricky ones. How about this light behind the headboard? Where’s the switch for this one? I believe it was on the side of the headboard.

Level 4: Expert Mode – The Lighting Gauntlet

If you’re ready for to play in expert mode, check out these rooms. The more forms of lighting there are, the harder it is to figure out how to use them all. In this room, we have hallway lights, ceiling lights, hanging lights and a lighted backboard.

Finally, we have this room at the Hyatt Place. There were lights by the bed, on the desk, and hanging from the ceiling. There was also a light over the seating area and missing from the photo is a standing lamp behind the chair. Add to the equation that the shades worked from a switch on the wall, which had no markings on it.

Final Thought

Hotel lighting used to be simple — one switch by the door, a lamp on the nightstand, done. Now it feels like you need a map, a flashlight, and maybe a cheat code just to turn the lights on and off. All I’m asking for is one magical switch to rule them all. Until then, I’ll keep stumbling through these hotel-room escape rooms in the dark.

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