Well I will file this one under “how the hell did it take me so long to try and figure it out” because that is how I feel after discovering that hotel thermostats can be hacked. It took me approximately 1,674 uncomfortably warm hotel stays to finally arrive, specifically at 3am this morning, to the following thought: I need to solve this effing motion detector issue with the thermostat.
If you travel a lot, you know what I’m talking about. Energy conscious hotels (who likes the environment anyway? AmIright?) install motion sensors in the room so that when there isn’t anyone in there, it shuts off the AC (or heat). Makes enough sense. Problem is, I don’t know about you, but when I’m sleeping I don’t walk around the room and do shit. Well, unless I’m really drunk. Anyway, 3am this morning I wake up sweating as I almost always do when I’m in one of these rooms during the summer. I finally think to myself, what the fuck, there has to be a way to deal with this. Why in the world I decided this particular morning was the time to address the issue opposed to the countless other times its happened is beyond me.
So, I go online and do some searching. Turns out the thermostats in most hotel rooms can be hacked with a combination of button presses a la video games of our childhood. Awesome, welp, I started messing around and found out this sequence worked for my hotel room:
Hold down the display key, press off, then up, and release the display key. Great success!
My unit said “VIP” after I did that which made me feel extra awesome after I found the winning combo move. Also worth noting that enabling this feature allows you to lower the room temperature below the preset 65 degree limitation normally in place. Double win! I read that after 24 hours it returns to normal, so don’t feel bad about leaving it in place and absolutely destroying the environment (the obvious and unavoidable side effect to doing this).
I shall sleep well tonight, indeed. And hopefully those of you on the road and in the future can do the same.
