Hotel room wireless charging: the nightstand brief
A guest arrives with a phone the property has never seen and one free outlet behind the lamp. Four decisions decide the room.
A hotel room is the hardest place in a building to put a charger and the easiest place to get wrong. The guest arrives with a phone at nine percent and one outlet behind the nightstand that the lamp already uses. Whatever is specified has to charge a device the property cannot survey and be replaced by housekeeping, not an electrician. Four decisions settle the brief.
Where the pad sits in the room
Three formats cover almost every brief: a pad on the nightstand top, a pad built into the furniture, and a bedside unit that replaces the clock radio. They charge the same way and differ in who does the work. The surface pad needs no joinery, the built-in needs the joiner and a cable route, and the bedside unit trades the clock for one cord.
The choice follows the refurbishment scope. Soft goods take the surface pad, a full furniture package can take the built-in, and a property replacing clocks should price the bedside unit first.
The phone the guest actually brought
A magnetic pad pulls a phone into alignment on its ring and charges at the profile that phone supports. A phone without a ring has to be placed by eye, so a wide coil and a marked landing area are more forgiving than a small puck.
Case thickness, a camera bump and a wallet flap change the answer. A high share of recent iPhones makes the ring the default, a mixed base argues for the wider coil, and watches and earbuds are a separate cradle.
The socket budget at the bedside
Most rooms have one outlet on each side, and the lamp has taken it. A unit that carries pass-through outlets and USB-C ports removes the adapter the guest forgot, and the reason to unplug the lamp.
The cable route matters as much as the port count. A cord that leaves from the rear and drops straight down is invisible and easy to clean around. A side exit pulls the unit out of square.
Service life, loss and spares
A room charger is used by a different person every night and cleaned by someone who was not told what it is. The cable, the connector and the top surface fail in that order, so a replaceable cord and a reorderable plate keep a room in service.
Loose pads leave with guests. Fixed units and tethered cables do not. A roll-out over several budget years should settle the spare pool and the asset tag before the first floor.
Four formats, one decision
What changes is the work, the guest's reach and the swap, not the charging.
| Format | Work to install | Guest use | Service swap | Fits when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Surface pad | None, plug in | One hand, on the top | Lift and replace | Soft refurbishment |
| Built into the top | Joiner cuts, cable below | Flush, nothing to move | From below | New build or furniture package |
| Bedside unit | Replace the clock | Where a hand already goes | Unplug and replace | Clocks are being replaced |
| Duo or 3 in 1 | None, one cord | Phone plus watch or earbuds | Lift and replace | Guests bring more than a phone |
The profile is the same in all four. A guest notices where the phone goes; the property pays for how the unit is serviced.
Five things to confirm before the order
Each one changes the build, the quantity or the spare pool.
- The room types and the count in each. The quote is per type.
- Where the outlet sits and which way the cable leaves the unit.
- The share of phones without a magnet ring in the market served.
- Who installs: joiner, electrical contractor, or housekeeping with a plug.
- The spare pool and the asset tag, agreed before the first floor.
- Room brief
- Hotel rooms
- Ask for
- Sheet, certificate file, spare parts list
- Decided per
- Room type, not per property
Three answers before the email
Does the guest have to take the case off?
No. A magnetic pad charges through a normal case. A thick wallet case, a metal plate or a card left on the pad will stop it, and no pad design fixes that.
Can one unit serve a twin room?
A duo stand covers a phone and a watch, a 3 in 1 adds earbuds. Two phones on one pad is not a Qi2 arrangement, so a twin room takes one unit per bedside.
Is 25W worth specifying?
Where the guest mix has Qi2.2 phones, yes, and it falls back to a lower profile for everything else. Treat 25W as a cost decision for the room grade.
Send the room types, get a build per type.
Count, outlet position and market is enough. The reply is a build, a sheet and the certificate list.