I never understood these little travel tray deals. They didn’t really make sense: there’s a nightstand at every place I stay, and my stuffs can go on that. That said, my loyal group of enablers in the Discord praised these trays and so I bought a couple.
And then I bought four more, turns out, these things are handy has hell.
Sizes
There’s two sizes on this, labeled as small and large. The large is too large, and thus you should stick with the small. If you do that, it can hold almost everything you want it to hold, but it won’t be so large that it feels unwieldy and hard to fit on the smaller nightstands in many hotels.
The large is a very nice size, but it less handy to travel with, and I have yet to see a benefit of that over the smaller size.
How I Use Them
Everyone in my family has one of these. My kids use them to hold their snacks while traveling, and then to hold their small odds and ends once we arrive and are staying somewhere. It keeps all their cruft together.
Personally, I end up using these as a dumping station for the weird things you collect when traveling. The coupon the front desk gave you for free coffee. The valet stub. Some pin/coin/trinket the kids asked me to hang on to.
And of course it stores my wallet, keys, knife, flashlights while I sleep.
Here’s the real value: if you remember to use and put your stuff in these travel trays, and then remember to take the whole thing when you leave — you’re much less likely to forget something sitting on the nightstand. The small things, not the big things. It’s peace of mind, and easy.
They also flatten down to nearly nothing, or double in volume to become a stuff sack (which is how my kids use them for snacks). There’s little penalty for taking these, and they are useful as heck. They weigh approximately nothing.
Overall
I typically bring a couple with me when I travel, and the kids love theirs and pack them too. The price is right on these, stick to the smaller size, and get everyone their own color.
I highly recommend these. Buy the small ($23), buy a large ($26).