Sometimes, flights and schedules don't work out. Maybe you've got a long layover and want to pop into the city to explore. Or perhaps you need to check out of your hotel or Airbnb hours before your flight home. In either case, lugging your bags around all day can be a drag … pun very much intended.
Luckily, you don't have to. No matter where you're headed, there are several options you can turn to store your bags before or after your flight, leaving you unburdened and free to explore. Often, it's as simple as asking your hotel or Airbnb host if they can stash your bags, or paying for a locker to store them at the airport.
But there are apps now too – like Bounce and Nannybag, to name a few – that provide locations in cities worldwide to store your luggage for a small fee. Simply use the app (or website) to find a convenient location, reserve your space, drop off your belongings, and head out bag-free.
Here are a few of our favorite ways to store luggage while traveling.
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Ask Your Hotel or Airbnb Host
The easiest (and potentially most cost-effective) option is, of course, leaving your bags where you're staying.
If you're a guest, most hotels will hang onto your bags for you for free before or after check in. When traveling to Rome earlier this year, I checked into my hotel, the Intercontinental Rome Ambasciatori Palace, around 8 a.m. after an overnight flight … but my room wasn't ready yet. The hotel offered to store my luggage while I went sightseeing for the morning, saving me from dragging my suitcase all over Rome's narrow, cobblestone streets.
Another time, while staying at an Airbnb in Santiago, Chile, we messaged the host to see if we could leave our bags at the property for a few hours beyond check out since our flight wasn't until later that night. It never hurts to ask!
Try Bounce (or Another App)
Bounce is one of several apps that have emerged in recent years to solve this ever-present problem. Simply use the app (or website) to find a location near you, book space, drop off your belongings, and you'll be on your way.
You'll find Bounce luggage storage locations in most major cities worldwide. The service works with businesses across each city to provide contracted luggage storage – odds are, there will be a location near you to drop off your bag for a few hours.
On a recent trip to Montreal, we had to check out of our Airbnb around 11 a.m. and had about five hours to kill in the city before we needed to head to the airport. Once we decided we wanted to store our bags while we did some more sightseeing, I pulled up the Bounce app.
From here, you simply select your check-in and out date and time, then drop off locations with baggage space available will appear. The cost for each bag starts at $5.90 a day (plus taxes and fees). Each bag is insured for up to $10,000 in value.
The service works with businesses across each city to provide contracted luggage storage. For my group, I picked a location near a metro station so we could easily drop our bags in the morning and pick them up at the end of the day to get back on the train to head to the airport.
Once you select a storage location, you can see the location's available hours and finish your reservation. Upon arrival, simply show the attendant your booking receipt, drop off your luggage and go explore the city.
The spot I landed on ended up being a gym. The staff were very efficient, storing our bags in what appeared to be a secure room behind the front desk. They put tags on each of our bags, instructed me to take a photo of each of the tags just in case, and then tore off the bottom half of the tag for us to hang onto, which we handed back to the staff member when we returned to collect our bags.
Read our full review of the Bounce luggage storage app!
Bounce isn't the only app in the luggage storage game, there's others like Nannybag and StoreMe that offer a similar service, although we haven't personally used either of those yet ourselves.
Try Airport Storage Lockers
It used to be more commonplace at airports to find lockers where you could store your bags for a few hours or even days, but they're fewer and far between these days – especially in the U.S.
Still, there are some airport in the U.S. – and especially abroad – where you'll find services that will store your bags for you.
You'll find lockers operated by Smarte Carte at just three U.S. airports as of publication: Honolulu (HNL), Seattle (SEA), and New York City (JFK) – as well as a handful of international airports. Another luggage storage service called Hold My Luggage operates at Atlanta (ATL), Miami (MIA), and Orlando (MCO) airports, among others, and will store your bags for you – and you can even pay extra to have them deliver it to your at the airline check-in desk when you return to the airport. And overseas, cheap luggage lockers are much easier to find.
Those are just a few examples. Note that that any luggage you choose to store at the airport may be subject to additional searches by the TSA.
There's no guarantee an airport will have an option to store your bags, but it's always worth checking. At the same time, you should compare the cost of a storage locker over a service like Bounce, since you'd have to be going back through security either way – whether you leave your bags at the airport or store them somewhere else in the city.
Turn to Your Gym Membership
How's this for an out-of-the-box tip? On a trip to New York City a few years back, our credit cards editor Jackson Newman used his Planet Fitness gym membership to store his luggage for a few hours while out sightseeing. I'll let him explain:
I had a late flight home and needed to check out of my hotel before noon. While I'm sure the hotel would have gladly stashed my luggage while I hit the town, it would have required significant backtracking on the way to the airport.
Knowing that most gyms have locker rooms, I figured I might be able to find a Planet Fitness where I was headed and be able to store my luggage there instead. Sure enough, a quick Google search confirmed that there was a gym on the way to the airport. Since my existing membership allowed access to any Planet Fitness location, I was able to use that to get into the locker room and securely leave my bag behind … for free.
Just be sure to plan ahead and bring a lock with you if you're hoping to use a similar strategy!
Read next: How to Pack in a Carry-On Bag for Every Trip
Bottom Line
While the problem isn't critical, not having a place to keep your bags can sometimes be a nuisance during your travels. Use one of these tricks to store your bags for a while on your next trip.
Now this comment is for carry on, not checked luggage. It really bugged me that they had no storage for carry on in the otherwise wonderful SQ lounge T3 at SIN. As a single traveler there Is was balancing gin tonic, pasta, and my luggage. Ridiculous.