Travel Hacks: Camera Phone Hacks

With a crazy schedule, I find there are lots of details I fail to pay enough attention to while traveling.  I have found that my camera phone is a great tool to quickly capture the information that I would otherwise ignore and regret later.  Here are a few of my favorite camera phone hacks to improve my productivity on the road.

Rental Car
I get into a strange airport after midnight, or a foreign city, many timezones away.  Groggy I get in the car, drive to a hotel, and crash.  The next morning, refreshed, I head out into the parking lot, only to discover I have no idea which car is mine.  I then get to play the fun game of "which Ford is mine" with the remote keychain, wandering around until I make a car honk.  Instead, I now snap a quick picture of the back of my car with my phone as I am throwing my luggage in the trunk.  That allows me to identify the make, model, and color of the car when I need to find it later.  It also has the license plate, for those rare occasions when the hotel forces you to fill out that information on checkin.

While most airport rental car locations (for the big chains) don't check your car for damage either before you leave the lot or after you bring it back, the regional rental car companies and off airport locations are usually a little more stringent.  To be safe, if I see a major issue with the car when I pick it up, I snap a quick picture before leaving the lot.

Parking Lot
When I park my car at the airport and am not going to return for a few days, I will snap a picture of where I parked, so when I land, I don't have to rely on the freshness of my braincells to remember.

Hotel Room
Just like where I parked my car, I often don't recall which room is mine.  I hate carrying around the big bulky key jacket most hotels give you on checkin.  I used to rip just the room number off and stick it in my wallet, but that proved more trouble than it was worth.  Now I just snap a picture of the door when I unlock the room.

Valets
When I end up in my own car (BMW M3 Convertible with SMG transmission), I always cringe when the valet (using a kid around 18 years old) takes my keys.  I have taken to snapping a picture of my dashboard before getting out, so both the restaurant (through the windshield) and the odometer are visible.  I've used the picture twice.

Receipts
If your company will submit digital versions of your receipts on your expense reports, your camera phone is your friend.  Often I will snap a picture of the receipt and throw it away while I am still on the road, instead of carrying it around for weeks before processing it.

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