The 2-minute hotel check Kim runs every stay, the broken lock it caught and the trick that turns the room’s TV into a second monitor.

October 3, 2026

By Kim Komando

A few weeks ago, I checked into a hotel in Jackson Hole, dropped my bag and did what I always do: tested the locks on the door. Good thing. The extra lock didn’t work. The front desk made it right, but only because I checked. 

I go over every room the same way: the locks, the Wi-Fi, the safe and, yes, under the bed. Two minutes, every stay. But before I share my routine, here’s a TV trick that turns the room into your office.

🖥️ Suite screen dreams

That flat-screen bolted to the wall? It’s a second monitor. 

Most hotel TVs have an open HDMI port on the side or back. Pack an HDMI cable (10% off, $9) and a USB-C to HDMI adapter (7% off, $13) if your laptop needs one, plug in and press the TV’s Input or Source button until your desktop appears.

Now the important part. 

• On Windows, press Windows key + P and choose Extend, not Duplicate. 
• On a Mac, plug in, then check System Settings > Displays and make sure mirroring is off. 

Extend gives you two separate workspaces: the video call on the big screen, your notes on the laptop. FYI, some TVs are locked in “hospitality mode” and ignore the Input button. The front desk can unlock it.

🧳 The 2-minute room check

• Test every lock the second you walk in. Dead bolt, latch, slider. For backup, a portable door lock ($25, two-pack) wedges any hinged door shut from the inside.
• Get the Wi-Fi name from a human. Crooks park look-alike networks near lobbies to steal logins. Connect only to the exact name the desk gives you, and keep banking on your phone or hotspot.
• Sweep for hidden cameras. Lights off, curtains closed, phone flashlight on. Examine smoke detectors, clocks, chargers and vents for a bright little lens glint. Then pan the dark room through your phone’s camera. Infrared night vision you can’t see shows up on screen as a glowing white or purple dot. Here’s the $30 detector tool I travel with. Find something? Don’t touch it. Report it.
• Open the safe before you trust it. A friend of mine did that in Italy and found a $300,000 ring the last guest left. Under Italian law, the hotel had to post the find publicly in the newspaper. If nobody claims the ring within a year, it’s legally hers. So open the safe the minute you check in.
• Then test the safe’s lock. Most hotel rooms use electronic safes from a handful of brands, like Elsafe and Safemark, and many ship with a factory override code: 0000, 9999 or six zeros. Some hotels never change it. Close the door and punch one in. If it pops open, don’t leave anything real in there. Either way, set your own code and know staff can always override it. 

Want a better option? I pack a portable travel safe (10% off, $16), a slash-resistant bag with a steel cable you loop around the closet rod. 

And steal my mom’s trick, so you don’t forget the stuff you lock up. She always put one shoe in the hotel safe. Mom’s shoe trick never failed. She always left on the right foot.

🎯 Send this to someone who flops onto the hotel bed without even glancing at the dead bolt.