I travel with my son solo a fair amount. In fact, he's now only 2 and a half but has already been to five tech conferences with me, many of those with the two of us traveling solo. One of the things I learned very early on was how to VERY quickly and VERY easily childproof a hotel room. This became even more important once my son was sleeping in a bed (he started climbing out a crib/pack and play at about 18 months so our bed transition came pretty early), but even before that, he would be into everything before I could even close the hotel room door. Here are my tips of how to childproof a hotel room.

• Find the room safe. This will keep your child occupied while you childproof the rest of the room.

• Stuff pillows in between the bed and the nightstand. Most hotels have a rectangular or square nightstand in between the two beds (or next to the one bed if you're still using a crib). There is usually a small gap and sharp corners, but shoving a pillow in there will keep you child from getting caught and from bumping into the corners.

• Unplug all the phones, both the phone from the wall and the receiver from the phone base. Added bonus, your child can now walk around the room "on the phone" which is really what they want.

• Find the refrigerator (which you probably need for milk, snacks, etc.) and tape it shut. This way your child won't open and close it incessantly over the next few days which will likely drive you bonkers.

• Take any chairs and put the back of them against the side of your kid's bed to act as a bed rail.

• Put extra pillows on the floor on the side that does not have chairs as the bed rail.

• Always use the security chain or extra lock at the top of the door. Most hotel room doors are easier to open than your doors at home. If you're really lucky, your child will figure out that they can open it while you're in the bathroom or doing something equally convenient.

As an aside, I've never had to do this, but you can also use washcloths and tape them around any sharp corners.

Materials needed: Duct, masking, or painters tape. These three tape options will be sticky enough for what you need but won't damage any of the hotel room.