This simple yet often overlooked travel hack can be vital in a time of need when you’re abroad
With summer fast approaching and many preparing to head abroad from the UK, it’s the perfect time to brush up on travel tips – especially ones that can save you stress in unexpected situations. One often overlooked hack could help you avoid a major headache while away, whether you’re travelling solo or within a group.
This simple yet effective trick is hailed as a ‘lifesaver’ by frequent travellers – especially in an emergency. Before you leave your hotel for the day, you might want to pick up the hotel business card, placing it in your back pocket or your handbag.
Most hotels have these business cards sitting at reception and guests often overlook them. However, some travellers have explained why something as simple as a hotel business card can become a true lifesaver in an emergency.
If you’re exploring a new city and your phone suddenly dies, you can be left without a way of getting back – having no map and no translation apps.
If you are not too familiar with the local language or remember your hotel’s name or exact address then returning to your hotel can quickly turn from inconvenient to stressful.
This is when the hotel business card comes in handy. By keeping one on you, you have the hotel’s name, address and phone number without needing to rely on your phone. By showing the card you can either get a taxi or ask someone for directions to it.
It’s a simple but effective hack that frequent flyers swear by in unfamiliar cities where there is a language barrier.
The traveller took to Reddit, stating: “If staying at a hotel, I always get a business card with the hotel’s address on it. If my phone battery dies, I can show this to a cab driver and have them get me back to my hotel.”
“Especially useful if you don’t understand the language.”
Other users on the Reddit thread agreed, with one simply replying: “Definitely a lifesaver in Tokyo!”
While one user shared their experience of being mugged while travelling abroad, they wrote: “This is a lifesaver. I got mugged once in Barcelona and the only thing they got was my phone… which was my directions back to my hotel at 4am…
Thankfully two very old men who apparently were night owls helped me get back to my hotel.”
Another tourist gave a hack to prevent losing the business card, or in a situation where you have lost your purse and phone, to place the card in the inside of your shoe or within your underwear.
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The hack can also be helpful when staying at a hotel chain, with several different locations over the city, and you can’t remember the address of the one you’re staying at.
