‘Genius’ solution helps turn hotel room lights on without key card

People are only just learning of a ‘genius’ solution to turn the lights on in a hotel room if you haven’t got the key card.

It’s common knowledge that when you first walk into a hotel room, you put the key card into the slot on the wall to turn the lights on. The key card is also used to unlock the door.

But when you are sitting in your room without the card, you might think there is no way to switch on the lights. A TikTok user called Nia has shown what you can do in this situation.

In a video posted on the platform, she said: “Sorry, I might have been living on a foreign planet but you know when you’re in a hotel and you have to put your key card in the thing to make the lights work, like the little pocket. Well, my mother has taken the card so now the lights aren’t meant to work but did you know you can put any card in?”

Nia put her Holland & Barrett rewards card into the slot where the key card goes and she was amazed that she was able to turn on the lights with this. She exclaimed: “How amazing is that?”

Her TikTok video has garnered more than 300 comments and several other people shared they also didn’t know about this life hack. One said: “That’s genius!!”

Another added: “I literally would have sat with no lights! Every day is a school day.” A third commented: “Nice hack. I didn’t know.”

A fourth chimed in: “Never even considered it, I would probably just sit in the dark.” However, some people already knew about this trick.

A former hotel employee said: “Doesn’t even have to be a card! When I was a hotel housekeeper we used to use folded up scraps of paper to do it.”

Others left comments such as “I think we ALL knew this”, “I didn’t know this until years ago when I was listening to a show where someone mentioned they did this and it blew my mind” and “we did this in Benidorm so we could leave the aircon running.” Some TikTok users mentioned that using another card instead of the key card doesn’t work in all hotels as they have tried this before.

Besen LED Light has explained on its website that hotels use key cards to control room lights to conserve energy: “Hotel key card systems operate by using a switch that completes an electrical circuit when the card is inserted. This activates non-essential systems like lighting and air conditioning. Removing the card breaks the circuit, conserving energy when rooms are not in use.”

Hotel guests take their key cards with them when leaving their rooms and this turns the lights and power off in the room, saving energy. The light company has also acknowledged the use of other items to keep the power on in hotel rooms and mentioned the effects of this: “Some guests use alternate objects, such as business cards or folded paper, to keep the power on.

“While this might seem convenient, it goes against the hotel’s sustainable practices. More importantly, it might lead to technical issues or even damage the slot.”