There’s a moment of relief when you first unlock your hotel room door after a long journey. You’re ready to unwind, but seasoned travelers know the routine isn’t over yet. Before you relax, there’s a simple, slightly unusual step you can take to protect your belongings and your peace of mind. The trick? Place your suitcase directly into the empty bathtub. While it might seem odd, this practice is a powerful shield against one of travel’s most dreaded problems: bringing home more than just souvenirs. It creates a safe, clean holding zone for your bags the moment you arrive, giving you the freedom to inspect your temporary home.
The primary reason for this strategy is the battle against bedbugs. These tiny, resilient pests are the uninvited guests nobody wants to host. They thrive in the fabric and crevices of hotel rooms, particularly around beds, headboards, and upholstered furniture. Their favorite mode of travel is hitching a ride in luggage or clothing. A bathtub, with its smooth, hard, and typically cold porcelain or acrylic surfaces, is an environment bedbugs cannot easily climb and have no interest in inhabiting. By isolating your bags there immediately, you create a bug-free island for your belongings while you conduct a thorough check of the room’s sleeping area.
Beyond the bug threat, the bathtub offers a surprisingly clean haven. Hotel carpets and floors, no matter how vacuumed, accumulate a history of dirt, spills, and germs from countless previous guests. Placing your suitcase on the floor means it picks up that unseen residue, which you then might transfer to your bed or other surfaces. Bathrooms, however, are sanitized intensely between guests. The tub is one of the most routinely scrubbed and disinfected spots in the entire suite, offering a much more hygienic surface than the carpet ever could.
This method also provides a layer of practical security. It keeps your luggage consolidated in a contained space, safe from accidental spills from a knocked-over glass, a leaking toiletry bottle in your bag, or even unexpected room service visits. It prevents you from casually dropping your bag onto the bedspread—a surface that may not be cleaned as frequently as the sheets—before you’ve had a chance to assess the room’s cleanliness. It’s a physical reminder to pause and survey your surroundings.
Adopting this habit transforms your check-in routine. Step one: wheel your luggage into the bathroom and place it in the tub. Step two: you are now free to properly inspect the mattress seams, behind the headboard, and around furniture without worry. This small, thirty-second action empowers you, turning a potential vulnerability into a controlled situation. It’s a clever hack that costs nothing, requires minimal effort, and provides maximum protection, ensuring your trip memories are only the good ones you intended to make.
