RELATED: Marriott Customers Are Outraged That the Hotel Chain Is Doing This. Even if the housekeeping crew made your room impeccably tidy and sanitized after the last guest, the staff still might have forgotten to do one important thing that’s actually critical for a good night’s sleep: turn off the alarm after the previous guest’s use. And if that alarm has been set for some unpleasant hour—maybe for a previous guest’s early-morning flight—you’ll want to make sure you turn it off before it wakes you up at that time, too, says Brandon Berkson, hotel expert and founder of the new HAP Concierge trip planning service. RELATED: See the Germiest Spots in a Hotel Room. People who can fall back to sleep easily will be less bothered by a possible middle-of-the-night or early-morning wakeup. But those who struggle to fall back to sleep—or even get to sleep at all in the first place—should be extra careful to mind the hotel alarm clock before closing their eyes. “You should always check the alarm clock to see if it hasn’t been previously set, especially if you’re a light sleeper, or one who, when waking up in the middle of the night, has a hard time going back to sleep,” Berkson urges.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb
There’s nothing worse than thinking you’ve reset the alarm clock only to be rudely awakened anyway because you didn’t do it correctly. While you might think you’re tech savvy, if you have any doubts, just take the most extreme approach: Unplugging it entirely can give you the peace of mind to sleep soundly. RELATED: For more travel advice delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter. If you do need to set an alarm, here’s a pro tip: Use the one on your phone instead, since you’ll be more familiar with how it works and are more likely to get a dependable result. “Sometimes I’ll try to set an alarm clock at the hotel I’m staying at, but to my despair, it won’t go off at all, not even at the hour I set it to,” Berkson offers. “So, with these past experiences, I’m now a big believer in using my phone as an alarm clock—it’s always dependable.” RELATED: The No. 1 Mistake You’re Making in Your Hotel Room, Bed Bug Experts Warn.