We’ve all been in this situation before.  After a long day of work or play, you come back to your limited service hotel room with a few bottles and just want to relax.  As you go to pour out your prize for the evening you realize the bottle you have chosen is not twist off and there is no bottle opener in the hotel room.  You consider calling down to have the front desk call room service to bring you up a bottle opener but decide that is too many steps for the instant gratification you are seeking.  Well PMM is here to help with a travel trip to take the edge off.

Using only the contents of your hotel room, we present two tried and thoroughly tested options for releasing the contents of your bottle.

Your target

Option 1: The door

Most people think a door is just an apparatus on which they can hang their Do Not Disturb or Make a Green Choice signs…..WRONG!  The door is a bottle opening machine.  Found in nearly 100% of hotel rooms, the door’s interior latch can be used to pry open a bottle in seconds.  I must warn you this method has a high spill risk.  It takes years of practice to master the craft and coordination needed to quickly reorient the bottle when the pressure of the bottle is released.  I am not meaning to brag, but not one drop was spilled in this demonstration.  For extra credit, use the bathroom door.

The setup

Clean release, no spillage.

Option 2: The ironing board

The ironing board is having issues maintaining its closet-share in business hotels these days with the advent of the iron-free shirt.  However, I still find these multi-purpose tools in about 85% of hotel rooms.  If you are fortunate to have one in your room, you now have another, more elegant option to open your bottled delight.

The primary issue identified with the door option is that the angle forces your bottle to be at a 90 degree angle when the pressure is released causing unnecessary spillage.  The innovative ironing board solution eliminates this issue.

First locate your ironing board and bring it to a large open space where you can maneuver it easily.

Second, locate an edge on the under-board where the bottle top can be leveraged tightly into the space.

Third, lean the entire board forward so that the bottle is near upright when you pull it against the under-board’s ledge and release the pressure.  The closer you are able to open the bottle to horizontal, the lower chance you have of letting any precious bottle contents spill.

Final steps

You’ve gotten this far, don’t forget the last and most important step of pouring out the drink into your choice of hotel drinking mechanisms.  With the bottles cracked, locate your favorite generic coffee cup, clear glasses they normally set next to the bathroom, or plastic-wrapped plastic cups found in your hotel room, pour the beer and enjoy!

Cheers.  You earned it!