Without a doubt, the remote control is the most discusting thing you’ll find in a hotel room. IT’s covered in bacteria but unlike sheets and towels it can’t be doused in Lysol. Many people bring their own wipes and wipe down the remote before touching it, and some people even download apps so that they don’t have to touch the remote at all. But can you bring your own?
If you’re really into this sort of thing, you probably could, but it would have to be a learning remote because there aren’t any off-the-shelf remotes that control hotel televisions. Hotel TVs use different codes than their residential counterparts, specifically so people don’t steal the remotes. Unfortunately using a learning remote isn’t a great choice either because it pretty much means you have to touch the remote in order to program it, and that’s what you’re trying to avoid.
The best — and possibly only — solutions are to bring a lot of Purell with you or to use latex gloves. You can hope that the hotel uses the DIRECTV Residential Experience, because that it’s not just really cool that you get all the channels you get at home. You also get a remote with an antimicrobial coating that is going to leave you much less likely to get something disgusting transferred from the remote to your hands.
