If you’re tempted to try the viral hotel thermostat hack made famous by YouTube and TikTok to override the controls and get your room to cool to a temperature below the hotel’s set limit, you might end up with a nasty shock… a $500 shock.
The thermostat hack has existed for years, but platforms like TikTok (RIP?) have popularized the practice to another level, and more and more guests are figuring out that they can get the temperature even lower than a hotel permits.
Now, hotels are threatening to crack down on guests who want their rooms ice cold.
It turns out that hacking the room thermostat could damage the device and even affect the room temperature in other rooms. That means hotels are being forced to replace thermostats, which is a cost they no longer want to bear.
The issue came to light after Spirit Airlines flight attendants staying in a well-known chain hotel in Minneapolis were threatened with a $500 fine if they detected any intentional or accidental tampering with the thermostat in the room they were staying in.
The warning came after the hotel noticed an “overwhelming” number of broken thermostats that were tracked back to room that had just been occupied by a crew member. It appears as if the hotel thermostat hack had been shared around the Spirit flight attendant community, and everyone was trying it.
Since the start of this year, flight attendants staying at the hotel have been warned that they face a $500 fine to cover the costs of fixing or replacing a damaged thermostat in a room they were staying in.
At least guests have some control over their room temperature settings in US hotels, because some of the rules in parts of Europe can be pretty jolting for American travelers.
In Germany, for example, it’s very common for hotels to turn the heating on and the air conditioning off in the winter. The temperature is set centrally and there is no way to adjust the heat. Thankfully, most hotels will, at least let you crack the window open.
And in Italy, laws to reduce energy consumption prevent hotel thermostats from being set below 21 Celsius (69.8 Fahrenheit). In fact, hotels and other public buildings aren’t even allowed to turn on the AC system unless the outside temperature is 25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit).
‘Repair a broken thermostat’ – what a whopper from a customer unfriendly hotel. they’re just concerned about the energy bill while making things uncomfortable for guests. other than manually resetting and taking a minute for that this is not breaking the thermostat.