12/09/2026
✈️ TRAVEL LESSONS I’VE LEARNT SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO… 🏨
#3 — Check what your upgrade actually gives you! 😂
Picture this…
After a few days sightseeing in Lisbon with a friend, we flew to Barcelona.
Barcelona was just a whistle-stop on our way further up the coast, so we only needed somewhere for one night. I booked a hotel I’d stayed in before, about 10 minutes from the airport in a taxi.
Perfect.
We arrived late and, honestly, all we wanted to do was go to bed.
We get to check-in…
“Ah, we’ve overbooked tonight. But don’t worry, we’ve upgraded your room type.”
OOOOOOOH! AN UPGRADE! 🎉
Well, check us out! 😂
We get into the room.
Urgh.
Only one bed.
Not exactly what we wanted, but it was one night. We’d survive.
We were both absolutely knackered, so we collapsed onto the bed at pretty much the same time.
And then we looked up.
There was a mirror.
On the ceiling.
Directly above the bed.
Cue about 10 minutes of us lying there absolutely crying with laughter. 😂😂😂
Eventually one of us looked to the side.
There was a bath.
Not in the bathroom.
Just… in the middle of the room.
Okay then.
We definitely won’t be having a bath. 😂
And then our gaze travelled a little further…
Oh.
OH.
The bathroom had glass walls.
Not frosted glass.
Not slightly obscured glass.
CLEAR. GLASS. WALLS.
You could literally sit on the toilet and wave at the person lying on the bed. 👋🚽
Mortified. 😂
Thank goodness we knew each other VERY well!
We checked out the next morning and carried on with our trip, arriving at a different hotel later that day.
And to be completely honest, the next hotel was not somewhere I’d choose to stay again.
But do you know what it did have?
A BATHROOM WITH PROPER WALLS.
At that point, it felt positively luxurious. 😂
💡 Travel lesson learned: an upgrade isn’t always an upgrade for YOU.
If you’re offered one, especially if you’re travelling with a friend, it might be worth checking exactly what you’re being upgraded to before getting too excited.
Because sometimes “upgraded room” apparently means one bed, a mirrored ceiling, a bath in the bedroom and absolutely no toilet privacy whatsoever. 😂
