While most of the hotels we stayed in appeared to be built after the laptop become commonplace, there was a notable lack of power outlets in every hotel we stayed at. In most of these locations even your standard traveling family with a few cell phones and a portable gaming system would be hard pressed for easy access to enough outlets.
Crowne Plaza Five Seasons Iowa City – One of the best we stayed at, the Plaza offered two outlets on the desk lamp and one on each of the bedside lamps. This was enough to charge our gear thanks to the Kensington 4-Port USB charger.
Country Inn and Suites Rapid City – This location was one of the worst in outlet number and placement but there was luckily a powerstrip tucked under the bed. From the looks of the powerstrip it was forgotten, not the standard room equipment.
Hampton Inn Rapid City – the Hampton Inn in rapid Cit offered only one outlet on the desk and in order to plug in our cell phones near the bed we had to pull the bedside tables out and unplug a lamp and an alarm clock.
Hampton Inn Four Aces in Deadwood – The Hampton Inn in Deadwood was a step up because there were 2 free outlets at the bedside table in addition to the one on the desk. Consequently this was the only location that offered a truly hot shower with water pressure.
La Quinta Rapid City – La Quinta had the best desk setup with 3 hidden outlets on edge of desk. Still, they had only 2 outlets near the bed, both of which were in use.
The sad thing is that 2 more outlets in any of the rooms we staying would have made a huge difference. One on each side of a king size bed, or 2 un-used outlets in the middle of 2 queen size beds would have been enough to let us charge our phones and use them as alarm clocks; which is important since every hotel seems to buy the most un-intuitive and unreliable alarm clocks.
For more reviews of Road Trip Gear, check out everything we have on the Great American Road Trip 2.0 and follow the NBRoadTrip tag on Notebooks.com.
Do you have a hotel brand you stay at for their tech friendly outlets? If so, let us know in the comments so that we can stay there next time. Alternatively, if you have a worst hotel for tech lovers to stay at give a warning.