10 Family Travel Hacks for Hotel Rooms

Family travel is always an adventure. If you’re traveling far and spending a good amount of time in a hotel room, there are loads of ways to make the most of having the family in a confined hotel space while keeping your sanity at the same time.

There are several ways to take advantage of hotel amenities during your stay that will keep the kids entertained.

Here are 10 family travel hacks for hotel rooms to use on your next family vacation:

1. Use pillows as a divider to give kids their own sleeping space.

One of the most hectic parts of staying in a double room with more than two people is figuring out where everyone is going to sleep. Requesting a few extra pillows (or possibly bringing a few of your own) is a great way to create individual sleeping spaces for the younger kids on one of the hotel room beds. This is a great way to avoid making someone sleep on the floor.

2. Use the ironing board as an impromptu dining table.

Not all hotel rooms have a desk or large table. Not to mention, there’s usually only one armchair or desk chair that certainly will not fit everyone’s bums. A quick and convenient, makeshift dining table hack is to use the hotel room’s ironing board along the foot or side of the bed. Since the ironing board height is adjustable, this is a great option for having a perfect, child-height surface for meals and/or gameplay.

3. Bring painter’s tape, and use it to turn the carpet into car roads and game boards.

Maybe traveling with a suitcase designated for bulky board games isn’t the best option for hotel room entertainment. Bringing along a simple roll of painter’s tape will give you hours of endless fun. Whether you have a toy car fanatic in the family or love puzzle games like tic-tac-toe and mazes, placing painter’s tape in different orientations on the carpet is a great hack for gameplay.

4. Keep toothbrushes off dirty counters with clothespins.

This is a great hack for avoiding germs and keeping drinking glasses in the bathroom accessible throughout your stay. Bring along a few colorful clothespins to clip to the neck of everyone’s toothbrushes. The clothespins do a great job of propping the brushes up to dry. It’s also a fun way to prepare for the trip to have each family member choose their toothbrush clip color for easy routine in the morning or right before bed.

5. Fill up the ice bucket or even the sink with ice and stick a small milk carton in for cereal for breakfast.

One of the easiest breakfast options on family vacations is breakfast cereal. Packing a bag or box of cereal is the easy part. Having perfectly chilled milk can be the tricky one. If your hotel room does not have or the hotel is unable to provide a small fridge, simply line your ice bucket with the provided plastic bag, fill it with ice and place a quart or a half-gallon of milk in to keep it cool.

6. Use the ice bucket liner as a makeshift dirty laundry or diaper bag.

If you won’t be using the ice bucket to chill your milk, the plastic liner is a great option for dirty diapers to seal up the potential stench. Additionally, if one of the kiddos has had an accident or you’d like to keep their dirty clothes separate from their fresh, clean ones, placing the infant and toddler clothing in the liner makes it really easy to separate the two.

7. Use the hotel room’s coffeemaker to make instant foods like oatmeal and ramen.

Have you ever wanted to have a quick bowl of oatmeal for breakfast? Using the hotel room coffee maker is your answer. Simply follow the instructions provided for the machine to boil or heat water without the coffee filter and grounds. Use a hotel room glass or insulated coffee cup to mix the hot water with the oatmeal and Tada! You’ve got yourself a quick, hot breakfast. You can also use this method to make ramen noodles for a quick lunch hack.

8. Use the drinking cups as a container for crayons, pens, and other child art supplies.

Keeping the kids entertained in the hotel room can be a creative thing too. Aside from playing games, packing a sketchpad or coloring books is a great way to spend time in the hotel room. To avoid pens, markers, colored pencils, and other art supplies from rolling off the desk (or makeshift ironing board table), use the drinking cups as holders. This also makes it loads easier for the kids to see and grab the color they need for their awesome vacation creations.

9. Use the shower caps to cover dirty shoes before packing them away in your suitcase.

It’s safe to say that most family vacations include walking. Whether you’re visiting a theme park or exploring the wilderness, those shoes are bound to get a bit dirty. If the shoes you explore the world with are not the same pair you’ll be traveling to or from home in, use the hotel shower cap to pair the shoes together. Doing so will protect the clothing or other items in your suitcase from getting dirty. This is an especially great hack for vacations that get rainy and muddy.

10. Fill a clear, over-door shoe organizer with treats for easy snacking.

What’s not to love about a snack hack?! One of the best ideas ever is to pack a clear, over-the-door shoe organizer in your luggage to use as a snack station in the hotel room. Simply hang it up over the front of the bathroom or closet door, fill each section with snacks your family loves, and enjoy a quick and convenient way to nosh on something between meals. Another great hack for multiple kids is to give each child a row at their height level that they can fill with the snacks of their choosing. It’s a fun way to get them excited and organized for the trip!