Feel uncomfortable when your hotel room curtains do not close all the way? Or does the light coming in from the streets or buildings keep you awake at night? This is often a complaint of frequent hotel stayers, and I had this myself during a recent hotel stay.

I have heard from business travelers, flight attendants and leisure travelers that this is a common complaint. Why curtains are not wide enough to amply cover a window, I’m not sure. Seems like curtain basics 101!

My hotel room had a 3-inch gap in the curtain closure and my hotel room overlooked a courtyard where people could be sitting late into the evening, or walking through on the way to their room. So it’s easy to see directly into my hotel room, especially at night when the lights are on. I know … since I took a glance out the window to see how many other rooms could be peeped into and I saw several!

For times like this when you want closure to the issue, a few things will work and all depends on what may be in your suitcase:

1. My favorite tip -- Use a slacks hanger from the closet. Assuming the hotel hangers are not permanently affixed to the closet rod (these type of hotels are usually off my list once I find that they don’t trust me with their hangers), a slacks hanger does the trick!

2. Use duct tape to tape the curtain panels closed. A small amount of duct tape wrapped around a pencil and tossed into your bag before you travel is a good pre-emptive measure. Many travelers travel with a small amount of duct tape for this and other travel emergency issues. Before leaving home, simply wrap some duct tape around a pen, popsicle stick or other such item and tuck this into your suitcase.

3. Use a chip clip (also called bag clip) to pull the curtains closed. Again, this needs forethought to have a multi-purpose clip in your bag … the type of clips typically sold to keep bags of chips or snacks closed.

Option 1 worked perfectly for me in my current hotel room with the 3 inch curtain gap. I was instantly comfortable in my room sitting at the desk knowing the courtyard peepers will have to find another place to peep.

Hopefully these tips have you feeling safe and peeper-free in your next hotel room!