If you’ve hesitated before using your hotel room’s coffee maker, flashing back to that one viral TikTok where a traveler used the machine’s hot water setting to wash their socks, you are not alone. Thankfully, travel expert Samantha Brown is here to cut through the social media anxiety with one simple piece of advice: Relax.
“Before social media, I had no idea how dangerous my choices were while traveling,” Brown, the well-traveled host of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love, confesses to Luxury Check In.
Brown remains a hotel room coffee machine loyalist, despite how many people have called her out for it on social media. “I use it, and often,” she says. “That early morning cup is a godsend, but there are many people who think it’s the most disgusting act. They say the machines are never cleaned, contaminated, and worse.”
And if you think you’re shaming her out of airplane coffee (because those machines are allegedly rarely cleaned and filled from a filthy water holding tank), you’re wrong. “I actually look forward to receiving that tiny cup of coffee to put on my tiny seatback tray,” she insists.
But the hottest scandal Brown’s seen in the travel world lately? Big bottles. “The newest taboo is the use of larger bottles of shampoos, conditioner and hand creams,” she says. Most hotels have moved from travel-sized toiletries to large, refillable bottles for sustainability and cost savings, and social media is not having it. “Apparently, sharing is not caring, as people have suggested that since they are refillable it means that others can spit into them,” or do worse.
Amidst all the taboos she’s willing to break, Brown does have a line in the sand—or, more accurately, on the carpet. “I never walk barefoot in my hotel room. That’s just gross.”
Coffee controversies aside, Samantha Brown is gearing up for a big year, with her highly anticipated ninth season of Places to Love launching January 9, 2026. In this season, Brown finishes her multi-year journey along historic Route 66, perfectly timed for the route’s 100th anniversary.
“Finishing Route 66 during its centennial is one of the great honors of my career,” she says. “This road isn’t just a line on the map—it’s a living story written by dreamers, creators, and small towns that refuse to fade into the background.”
And Route 66 is just the beginning. Season 9 also takes viewers to more far-flung destinations, including Switzerland, Italy, and Australia. With over 350 episodes, 65 countries, and 2.5 million miles under her belt, Samantha Brown knows best.
And if she wants to drink plane coffee and trust a hotel shampoo bottle?
Honestly, let the woman live. She’s made it this far, so she must be doing something right.
