Technology has streamlined and improved many of the ancient conventions of travel. Nowadays, you don’t even have to carry a printed boarding pass with you – and you certainly don’t need to secure your money with travelers checks on the go. But there is a longstanding one Travel log which you should continue to do even if technically you don’t have to. Read on to find out what experts say you should never be without.

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Nowadays, hotels are making the checkout process easy. You can just throw away or recycle your electronic room key cards and then just walk straight out of the hotel without ever going through a formal checkout process. but Brandon Berkson, Hotel expert and founder of curated boutique accommodation guide Hotels Above Par, says you should always go through the check-out process, be it digital or in person at the counter.

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Since you provided your credit card information at or prior to check-in, technically you can just leave and the hotel will place any final charges on your credit card. But that’s the problem, Berkson warns: if you don’t look, you won’t know what those upfront fees are – and you have no chance to contest them if something is wrong.

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When checking out of a hotel, you have an opportunity to review the charges one by one and make sure everything looks correct. “Checking out is important,” notes Berkson. “There have been a couple of times that I’ve been billed the wrong amount – a yell at the minbar sensors that falsely detect that I’ve taken something.”

There is also a chance to negotiate the bill in certain circumstances. Say the room was not as advertised or the service was way below reasonable expectation. Checking out is your chance to ask if they are getting it right by giving you a discount or throwing in a giveaway.

Another pro tip: when checking out at an international hotel, you can request the bill in local currency, which in the end is likely to be a much better deal for you than a foreign bill in US dollars because of the conversion rates.

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Dollars and cents aside, checking out a hotel is spot on, especially at a time when personnel bottlenecks cause tremendous disruption in a severely affected travel and hospitality industry. “This way, housekeeping knows that your room is free for the next guest, which is particularly relevant during the pandemic when staff need additional disinfection surfaces, laundry and restocking,” says Berkson.

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