Your hotel stay may be a relaxing escape or no-frills business trip, but most often it's a disruption in your routine. By applying a few easy feng shui hotel room tips, you will feel more comfortable in any situation.
Why Good Feng Shui Is Essential for Hotel Rooms
Even the most luxurious hotel rooms can generate negative chi energy due to size and layout limitations. While hotel suites are more favorable to good feng shui, the typical room must combine areas for sleeping, watching TV, and showering, in one small space. The furniture and appliances needed for those activities can generate bad feng shui energy when grouped together in a small room. When the success of your vacation or business trip relies on feeling refreshed and relaxed, these competing energies can leave you feeling drained instead.
Easy Ways to Create a Feng Shui Hotel Room
The first step to encouraging a relaxing and positive vibe in your hotel room is to recognize the most obvious sources of negative energy around you. The most basic principle of feng shui is the movement of chi energy in any space. Your goal is to keep the energy flowing and to avoid stagnant and chaotic energy.
Feng Shui Hotel Room Challenges and Remedies
Here are the most likely sources of misdirected and trapped chi in your hotel room and easy steps you can take to free the positive energy flow for a better stay.
Windows and Airflow
You have little control over windows or airflow in a hotel room, but that doesn't mean you're without solutions.
- Challenge: Hotel rooms are notorious for having inadequate airflow, typically because there is one window for the entire room, or a large sliding glass door. The imbalance of air sources creates stagnant chi energy.
- Remedy: The most obvious solution is to run the circulating fan that is present in your room. If your room does not have a built-in fan, many hotels offer portable fans that can be placed in your room. To enhance feng shui energy, bring a small wind chime to hang in your room. The wind chime can be tiny, and cleverly hung from anything using a hanger or string. A wind chime invites good chi to circulate, even in the stuffiest of spaces.
Bed Position
Beds are placed where they're placed in hotel rooms, which can lead to energy flow issues.
- Challenge: There's no way to adjust the bed position in a hotel room, (seriously, never try that.) Whether your bed is facing the door or against a bathroom wall, there are simple ways to remedy poor position without being asked to leave the hotel for moving furniture.
- Remedy: If your hotel bed is arranged so that your feet face a door, which is considered inauspicious, the simplest way to stop the negative chi is to place something at the end of your bed. To block the energy flow from the foot of the bed, stack extra pillows or place a robe at the end of the bed. If your room has a bench at the end of the bed, it makes the stacking technique much easier.
TVs and Mirrors
All hotel room have these potential feng shui problems.
- Challenge: As essential features of almost every hotel room, TVs and mirrors are energy disruptors. Due to the layout of most hotel rooms, they are within a few feet of the bed, which is harmful to relaxation and sleep.
- Remedy: Like rearranging furniture, there is no way to remove or move mirrors or TVs in a hotel room without negative consequences. The easiest way to handle the negative feng shui effects of the reflective energy of mirrors and TVs is to cover them. This should be done with a light hand, using a cloth or scarf that you brought for this purpose. Be mindful of causing damage to the room, as this creates negative chi as well. If the TV is in a cabinet, keep the doors closed when not in use, and keep the TV off when not actively watching it.
Sink in Sleeping Area
Many hotel rooms have sinks outside of the bathroom.
- Challenge: A common feature in hotel rooms is a sink adjacent to the sleeping area, or actually in the sleeping area. While this may be a space and time-saving feature for travelers, it creates bad feng shui for the hotel room due to mismatched energy. The dual yin yang energy of all spaces can become imbalanced with too much of one element.
- Remedy: Though bathrooms and bedrooms are both considered yin spaces, the moving water of a sink complicates the yin energy in a bedroom setting. When a sink is placed in an area meant for relaxation and sleep, it's a disruptor. Counteract the overly energetic water energy by activating the wood element. To do this, place a small wooden object near the sink. Using feng shui's elements as a guide, wood controls water, so it can soften the effects of its energy.
Bathroom Location
Bathrooms are often problematic in any feng shui design, including hotel rooms.
- Challenge: Bathrooms are very much part of the feng shui in a hotel room. The toilet and shower are usually visible from the bed, which disrupts positive chi energy for sleeping and relaxing--and it's far from romantic.
- Remedy: Keep the bathroom door closed at all times. Place a green or purple scarf on the handle of the bathroom door that faces the bed. This activates the eath element, and can soften the strong water energy to improve sleep and rest.
What to Pack for Your Feng Shui Short-Term Rental
If your short-term rental is similar in size and layout to a hotel room, you can easily use the basic tips above to feng shui your Airbnb or short-term rental. If you've reserved an entire home, many of the hotel room tips will apply easily to the bedrooms.
Feng Shui Travel Essentials
If you're traveling by car, your feng shui travel kit can be tucked into a plastic container or tote bag. If you're traveling by air, a zippered pouch that fits into your suitcase is your best choice. These essential items can help you create a personalized and comfortable feng shui hotel room or short-term rental.
- Flameless candles: The only option for a hotel room candle is a simulated flame candle. Hotels and short-term rentals ban lit candles for safety reasons--you don't want to set off the fire sprinklers or smoke alarm with a candle. Flameless candles now come in a variety of colors and scents, or unscented. The flicker of your flameless candle casts a relaxing light in the room.
- Personal pillow and pillowcase: If you have room, packing a favorite pillow and pillowcase can increase positive chi energy by creating a feeling of comfort and familiarity. If housekeeping will be cleaning the room, you'll need to remove the pillow case before heading out that day.
- Sound machine: There are USB-chargeable sound machines that can enhance the feng shui of your hotel room with white noise, relaxing music, and nature sounds. Sound is an important consideration in feng shui, especially if your space is on a busy road.
- Non-aerosol room spray: For a road trip, bringing an all-natural room spray in a non-aerosol plastic container is a great way to freshen up the air in a stagnant room. By introducing beneficial feng shui herb essences into your room, you can encourage relaxation and sleep. If traveling by air, you'll want to purchase your room spray at your destination due to possible flight restrictions.
Planning for Your Feng Shui Hotel Room
Assembling a feng shui hotel room travel kit is not only an easy way to enhance your stay, it's also a fun pre-travel activity. Depending on the circumstances of your trip, your choice of lodging, and how you'll get there, you have several options to create the perfect kit.
