Originally Posted by gglave

It's important for hotels to ensure that they have every single available electric outlet in every room in use, ensuring that there is no means for guest to use their laptops or charge their cell phones or iPods. One convenient way for hotels to gobble up every outlet is to plug lamps into them all.

Once they've plugged lamps into them they can also push large pieces of heavy furniture up against the outlets to further prevent guests from accessing them.