Remote work · 8 min read
Working From Twelve Hotel Rooms: What Actually Matters
After eight months on the road, the gear list gets shorter and much more specific.
Ines Halloran — Guest contributor · February 27, 2026
The romantic version of this life involves a laptop on a balcony. The real version involves a lot of bad chairs, and the gear that matters is the gear that fixes bad chairs and bad light.
The three items that changed my days
- A laptop stand that folds flat — raising the screen 12 cm ended my neck pain in a week
- A compact keyboard, so the stand is actually usable
- A small clip light, because hotel desk lamps are aimed at the wall
Connectivity, in order of reliability
An eSIM with a regional data plan beats hotel wifi almost everywhere. I keep two providers and switch when one degrades. A hotspot from a phone with a good antenna is more reliable than a dedicated travel router.
Assume a video call will fail once per week and schedule accordingly.
One bag or two?
Two. A 35–40 litre pack for everything, and a flat sleeve you can pull out and take to a café without carrying your whole life. The moment your work kit lives in its own pouch, packing takes four minutes.
The unglamorous part
Do laundry every five days whether you need to or not, keep the same two power cables in the same pocket forever, and repack the bag fully every time you move. Systems, not willpower.
A note on honesty
We sell bags, so read this with that in mind. Everything above is what we tell friends who ask, and most of it costs nothing. If a cheaper bag does the job for your trip, buy the cheaper bag.
