I had to travel for work this week. I don’t get to do it often so I didn’t really mind leaving my wife and daughter behind for two nights.

Besides, I got to stay in a hotel room all by myself.

I don’t know why I get such a kick out of having my own hotel room. I probably have less room than I have in our whole living room. But I have everything right here just for me.

I have two beds, one of which I can put all my stuff on without worrying about having to put anything away. I have no idea why they bother putting drawers and hangers in hotels. You have a whole bed (if you’re lucky) to store things.

I think the ability to revert back to my childhood and just put stuff wherever I want to makes me feel comfortable in a hotel room. If I am home alone, I know I will have to put things in their place eventually. In a hotel, I can just shove it all back in my bag at the end of the trip and leave.

The beds also have about two dozen pillows so I can choose which one I want to use. I never understood why hotels didn’t list that in their amenities. That’s pretty special.

Those kind of little things make me feel so special in my own hotel room. I get lots of pillows, more cups than I could ever use in one night, and my own, personal ice bucket.

I don’t know who came up with the idea of putting an ice bucket in every hotel room, but I want to give them a hug. You never know when you might need a bucket of ice in the middle of the night. That doesn’t usually happen to me, but I like knowing I am prepared.

About the only thing I don’t like about staying in a hotel is how I never sleep well. It usually has nothing to do with all the pillows or the ice machine excitement. I just feel like I don’t have anyone to answer to so I don’t need to worry about getting to sleep at a decent hour.

I start to regret this pretty early in the morning because, when I travel alone, I often have to get up early for work or something related to work.

That’s why the in-room coffee maker rivals the ice bucket as the most important item in a hotel room. The coffee make might actually come out on top because you can actually use that for something good.

The only problem is that they give you those little packets of coffee which do you no good if you take them home.

Because all of this other stuff really pales in comparison to the knowledge that every time you check into a hotel room, you get free shampoo, conditioner, and soap. You might not get coffee you can take home, but you get little bottles of toiletries.

And that’s totally worth the price of a room.