A quick, top travel tip

I often arrive in a hotel which requires you to put the room key into a socket to activate lights and power in the room. The only problem with this is that on leaving the room power is switched off, meaning you can’t leave phones or computers to charge while you go out and have fun.

There is a cunning way around this. The socket, in the vast majority of cases, is activated only by a key-shaped card rather than doing anything to check the key itself. You can usually get the power on by shoving an Oyster card (a London Underground pass) or other credit-card sized piece of plastic.

Now all you have to worry about is where you put your room key to make sure you don’t lose it.