How To Unclog A Toilet In A Hotel Room? (Explained)

You’ve just arrived at your destination for vacation, and you’re excited to be in a new place. You’ve just opened the door to your hotel room when you notice that the toilet is clogged. What do you do now?

Without a plunger, one way to unclog the toilet is to fill it with hot water. The heat, along with the forced movement of the water, should be enough to break up and eliminate the clog. In the absence of hot water, Epsom salts or bath bombs should do the job with their fizzy reactions with water.

How do you unclog a toilet without a plunger?

As previously mentioned, there are tons of options that you can opt for to unclog a toilet without a plunger. However, your chances of fixing the mess will be based on the number of resources available at your disposal.

That said, you can check below to see the different methods you can use to unclog your toilet without a plunger.

Use hot water

One of the many approaches you can employ to unclog the toilet at a hotel is to make use of hot water. Interestingly, most hotels often employ workers whose only job is to ensure every guest gets a hot shower within a few seconds.

If you’re fortunate enough to be in a hotel where you can easily get hot water, all you need to do is get a large bucket. However, you need to keep in mind that what you need is hot water and not boiling water. Pouring boiling water inside a toilet bowl could crack the porcelain or ceramic, which will add to the already embarrassing situation on the ground.

After successfully fetching the hot water from the instantaneous water heater in the hotel room, your next move should be to fill the toilet with it. The heat alongside the forced movement of the water should be enough to help you unclog the toilet.

Use dish soap or shampoo

If after trying the first option, you found out that the toilet is still clogged, another thing you can do is to get dish soap. Since you’re in a hotel room, your chances of getting dish soap will be very low.

So, in the absence of dish soap, you can always make use of your hair shampoo. Yes, the hair care product should help you fix the mess. However, that’s not the only thing you need. You also need to get hot (not boiling) water from the instantaneous water heater in your hotel room.

With all that ready, you’re good to go. Pour about a cup or more of the dish soap or shampoo, depending on what you have at your disposal, into the toilet bowl. Next, add hot water and leave the mixture for half an hour or even more.

The purpose of the hot water is to help you break up the toilet paper and push down the clogged material. The function of the dish soap or shampoo is to help the water slide down the pipe and also break down grease, dirt, and grime.

Use Epsom salts or bath bombs

Take a look around you and see if you can get Epsom salt or bath bombs. If any of these two substances are available, it means you’re halfway through to get the mess fixed.

In case you don’t know, Epsom salts create fizzy reactions when they come in contact with water. The same thing goes for bath bombs, they produce carbon dioxide bubbles, also called fizz, when they come in contact with water.

That said, pour the Epsom salt or drop the bath bomb inside your toilet bowl. The fizzy reaction that comes with doing that should be enough to help you unclog the hotel toilet. Flush your toilet the normal way and see if it does completely. If not, you might need to try another option.

Wire hanger

Another thing that you can use to unclog the toilet in a hotel in the absence of a plunger is a wire hanger. Yes, you read well! In case you have one available, all you need to do is to unfold and straighten it out.

After that, you need to check and confirm that the wire does not have a rough edge. If it does, you might need to wrap the edge with a small rag to prevent scratching the inside of the toilet bowl.

Next, stick the end of the wire, where the rag is located inside and down the drain. Further, stick the wire down the drain and poke the clog with force. This option should work and help you unclog the toilet.

How to plunge a toilet in a hotel room?

In case there’s a plunger inside the toilet in your hotel room, the question is; how can you take advantage of it to unclog the toilet?

If you’re using a flange plunger, first, ensure that the flange is extended. After that, proceed by lowering the plunger into the toilet, making an angle. The purpose of that is to enable the boot to fill with water without having to trap air.

Next, stick the flange into the drain hole and press down until the boot seals properly. After that, get the plunger into action and should be able to unclog the toilet successfully.

Will a toilet eventually unclog itself?

Here’s another frequently asked question; is it possible for the toilet to unclog itself without any action from you?

The answer to the question is yes; the toilet can unclog itself without using a flange plunger or any of the options listed above. However, you need to understand that this method requires a lot of patience from you.

Leaving the toilet alone for it to unclog itself is very possible; as the water in the toilet tries to leave, it’ll exert pressure on the clog inside the drain. However, since the pressure isn’t sufficient to unclog the toilet at once, it’ll only get to push the clog gradually until it has successfully unclogged.

Furthermore, this option may require you to wait overnight. The next morning, enter the toilet and flush it to see if it has successfully unclogged. To be on the safe side, get prepared to stop the flow of water in case the toilet ended up not unclogging itself.

Will a hotel charge you for a clogged toilet?

So, you’ve tried all the options above to unclog the toilet but all efforts still proved abortive. So, what should be your next line of action?

The best thing you need to do is to talk to the hotel about what happened inside the toilet. If you’re worried the hotel will charge you for the mess, you might have to stop thinking too much about it.

That’s because it’s very unlikely that you’ll be charged for a mess you didn’t intentionally commit.

Even if the mess was caused by you, which is very unlikely, the hotel won’t still charge you, unless they can show evidence for it. So, keep calm, report the issue. I’m sure the hotel will do something about the mess and try as much as possible to stay away from bad publicity.