Plugging in Electronics

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Samster

Well-known member
Joined
May 30, 2008
Messages
6,478
Reaction score
16
Location
South Carolina
If you have not traveled lately with all the electronic devices that you need, may I just suggest that you go into all of your guest rooms and see how you would plug in the electronics that you carry with you on a trip? We are traveling for a week and are on our second place. We are really challenged here! There are no plugs at all on an outside wall of this room. The plug on one side of the bed does have one of those adapters that allows you to plug in 6 things BUT there is already a bedside lamp, clock radio, and emergency light plugged in there. There are only 2 slots left because the emergency light obstructs 2 plugs.
My cell phone A/C adapter is one of those larger ones so now there is no room to plug in anything else at that location. We still have my dh's work cell phone, a charger for a digital camera battery, and an A/C adapter for my laptop. I can't get to the the plug on the other side of bed at all without crawling under the bed....literally...it is totally obstructed by bed and side table. :-( I tried!! The other plugs in the room have lamps plugged into them.
I know people also travel with iPods or MP3 players. We had 2 power strips in each room and we did have plenty of outlets per code.
If you have not considered it, think about power strips that are surge protected and easier to get to....your guests will thank you!!
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well.
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well..
My French guests lost their luggage that had their voltage converter in it. I have one somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it when it was needed. Just a heads up in case anyone else is in the same boat.
 
Has anyone bought one of the electrical outlets with the USB port that we discussed several months ago?
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well..
My French guests lost their luggage that had their voltage converter in it. I have one somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it when it was needed. Just a heads up in case anyone else is in the same boat.
.
Innkeep said:
My French guests lost their luggage that had their voltage converter in it. I have one somewhere, but for the life of me I couldn't find it when it was needed. Just a heads up in case anyone else is in the same boat.
It's easy to find 240-to-120 converters at any Walmart-type place since they occasionally have locals who are going oversears. But it's harder to find the ones like your French guests needed, that go the other way to let their 240V appliances work on our 120V system. They might have them at Radio Shack, or you might have to get one online.
Any place that occasionally has overseas guests should have at least one of these. Just don't hide it from yourself the way Innkeep did!
wink_smile.gif

 
Has anyone bought one of the electrical outlets with the USB port that we discussed several months ago?.
I tried ordering one just a few days ago but the page says they are only taking pre-ordering for expected shipment in November. So I plan to wait until they actually have a finished product. I don't like buying vaporware ;)
http://store.fastmac.com/product_info.php?products_id=458
 
Just curious...did you ever think to just bring along a small surge protector power strip with you, knowing you have tons of "stuff" that needs electrified?
I'm so happy to be married to an Eagle Scout. He's prepared for every contingency when we travel.
 
We have a box of them cos no one in the world has the same plugs as the UK so we have ones for USA, Europe and Australia and that covers everything. The only thing is make sure you get them back as otherwise they do tend to walk.
 
Just curious...did you ever think to just bring along a small surge protector power strip with you, knowing you have tons of "stuff" that needs electrified?
I'm so happy to be married to an Eagle Scout. He's prepared for every contingency when we travel..
Don Draper said:
...did you ever think to just bring along a small surge protector power strip with you, knowing you have tons of "stuff" that needs electrified?
ThreeProngAdapter.bmp
Even a small power strip is more than I want to carry, but I do carry an extension cord with 3 outlets on it, and I have one of those adapters (photo) that lets my 3-prong computer cord plug into the 2-slot outlets on the extension cord.
The extension cord has a polarized plug (one blade wider than the other) and a few places I've been had old-fashioned outlets that the wider blade wouldn't fit into, so I've ground the wide blade down so it will fit any outlet. This bypasses the saftey feature of the polarized plug, but I'm careful with it.
 
We have a box of them cos no one in the world has the same plugs as the UK so we have ones for USA, Europe and Australia and that covers everything. The only thing is make sure you get them back as otherwise they do tend to walk..
...no one in the world has the same plugs as the UK so we have ones for USA, Europe and Australia and that covers everything. The only thing is make sure you get them back as otherwise they do tend to walk.
Yes, small things like that have legs. I think if somebody ends up here from over seas (hey...it could happen) with no plug adapters, they are going to need them other places they go in the US anyway, so I'm planning to sell them rather than loaning them. I'll have a couple of 120V to 240V converters and a few plug converter kits to sell.
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well..
I learned this from my guests, too. :) It just didn't hit home with me how helpful it would really be to have one power strip in our room for the last couple of days where there were few plugs and most of the existing plugs were used up by lamps, clocks, and so forth. And 2 plugs (which also had things in the room already plugged into them) were so extremely difficult to get to behind a really heavy bed. We're now in a different place and there are plenty of plugs and there is no problem.
I have had guests with more electronics than what we're traveling with.
 
Just curious...did you ever think to just bring along a small surge protector power strip with you, knowing you have tons of "stuff" that needs electrified?
I'm so happy to be married to an Eagle Scout. He's prepared for every contingency when we travel..
Yes, I have thought to bring one, but it's never been an issue before because we really don't have "tons" of electronics. The main problem was getting to 2 outlets in a room (which also already had lamps plugged into them) that was also short on outlets. I don't check luggage and I'm doing pretty well to be traveling for a week with a rolling carry on and my laptop bag.
We had guests bring electric toothbrushes, electric razors, CPAP or biPAP machines, iPods, camera battery chargers, more than one laptop, small game systems, Kindles, etc. The list goes on.
 
We have a box of them cos no one in the world has the same plugs as the UK so we have ones for USA, Europe and Australia and that covers everything. The only thing is make sure you get them back as otherwise they do tend to walk..
...no one in the world has the same plugs as the UK so we have ones for USA, Europe and Australia and that covers everything. The only thing is make sure you get them back as otherwise they do tend to walk.
Yes, small things like that have legs. I think if somebody ends up here from over seas (hey...it could happen) with no plug adapters, they are going to need them other places they go in the US anyway, so I'm planning to sell them rather than loaning them. I'll have a couple of 120V to 240V converters and a few plug converter kits to sell.
.
We had a couple of converters to lend...we had them anyway. They are the type that have multiple options.
 
The thing is while we live our days out in these old historic buildings, technology passes us by...most have NO IDEA the number of electronics people travel with today, no idea.
Some here are only NOW thinking of WiFi for guests, which has been a requirement really for at least 5+years. Some here are still not onboard with online reservations!!
whattha.gif

Technology is redundant faster than a blink of the eye...this forum is a great place for us ALL to share what guests are up to and trying to stay on top of it.
If people listen, if people read...they don't.
 
we thought about a deposit for the plugs or say a $2 charge so that if any walked we could use the money to replace them however all of them so far have made it back to us so i am holding off. Plus a few have been left behind so have actually increased our collection. When I travel I have a laptop and a mobile phone so that is at least 2 sockets however they don't have to be both plugged in at the same time.
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well..
I learned this from my guests, too. :) It just didn't hit home with me how helpful it would really be to have one power strip in our room for the last couple of days where there were few plugs and most of the existing plugs were used up by lamps, clocks, and so forth. And 2 plugs (which also had things in the room already plugged into them) were so extremely difficult to get to behind a really heavy bed. We're now in a different place and there are plenty of plugs and there is no problem.
I have had guests with more electronics than what we're traveling with.
.
I'm with you 100% Samster. People need to plug things in, and even if we think power strips are an eyesore, they're indespensible around here. (And if you ever wonder why somebody is always unplugging that certain light or that clock, this will be why!)
One problem with power strips is that the charger ends of a lot of eletronics (including hair dryers, of course) are just too big to make use of all the outlets on the strip. I just searched the BB&Beyond website to try to show the kind or multii-arm power tap I bought recently that lets you plug big things into all outlets, but it has disappeared from their site. It looks just about like this one:
www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp
but you can see this one is USB ports rather than electric outlets (which may also be useful!)
 
I have spare cords with addlt outlets in the drawers and closets now after you stayed here. I do listen.
cry_smile.gif
Multiple styles, not just strips, as I know the chargers etc are bigger, or you need three prong and spaced well..
I learned this from my guests, too. :) It just didn't hit home with me how helpful it would really be to have one power strip in our room for the last couple of days where there were few plugs and most of the existing plugs were used up by lamps, clocks, and so forth. And 2 plugs (which also had things in the room already plugged into them) were so extremely difficult to get to behind a really heavy bed. We're now in a different place and there are plenty of plugs and there is no problem.
I have had guests with more electronics than what we're traveling with.
.
I'm with you 100% Samster. People need to plug things in, and even if we think power strips are an eyesore, they're indespensible around here. (And if you ever wonder why somebody is always unplugging that certain light or that clock, this will be why!)
One problem with power strips is that the charger ends of a lot of eletronics (including hair dryers, of course) are just too big to make use of all the outlets on the strip. I just searched the BB&Beyond website to try to show the kind or multii-arm power tap I bought recently that lets you plug big things into all outlets, but it has disappeared from their site. It looks just about like this one:
www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp
but you can see this one is USB ports rather than electric outlets (which may also be useful!)
.
InnBloom said:
I just searched the BB&Beyond website to try to show the kind or multii-arm power tap I bought recently that lets you plug big things into all outlets, but it has disappeared from their site.
There seems to be something called a 'power squid' that fits the bill.
ETA: They have other products that are multiple outlets, not in the traditional strip form which look practical for a B&B.
 
Is it something we could just have on hand? Or will people not ask?.
No, in MY experience, they won't ask. They'll just unplug something else, and if we don't catch it while flipping a room, then the next person thinks a light or a TV or a DVD player, or whatever, doesn't work. (Or just grumbles because they couldn't conveniently plug in what they want.)
And, if you think they can just use the bathroom plug to charge their phone, I have to say....when I travel, I exclusively use my cellphone for an alarm clock because I do NOT want to figure out new and different alarm clocks. I know how to use my cell alarm, and I trust it to go off. And I WANT it near my bed so I don't have to get up and stumble around.
 
That power squid thing got pulled off buy.com I wonder if there is a defect or something, I was ready to buy a bunch of them. I think that is ingenius!
 
Back
Top