Woman Shares Travel Hack for Getting Free Gifts Delivered to Your Hotel Room

One way to get a free gift basket of treats delivered to your hotel? Enlist the help of your mom.

In a video posted to TikTok, Julia Baird, a 27-year-old based in Toronto, Ontario, shares her hack for getting free gifts while she travels, saying, “This is your sign to have your mom call the hotel.”

“Every time I’m traveling, my mom calls the hotel to do something special for me — even if it’s not a special occasion,” Baird says.

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She then shares what her mom did for her during a recent work trip to Vancouver.

“My mom called the hotel and had them put together a little gift basket,” she says, then showing the bed as she entered her room, complete with a basket full of fresh fruit, sparkling water, a bag of popcorn and various other snacks.

“Not only did I get free snacks, but they also wrote me a little card,” Baird shares in the video. “If you or your mom isn’t calling the hotel every single time you travel, you’re doing something wrong.”

Speaking to PEOPLE, Baird says her mom has been “leaving little surprises” in her hotel room “for as long as I can remember.”

How Baird’s mom does it is fairly straightforward, she adds.

“When I travel for work, she’ll call ahead and see if they can leave a complimentary snack or two in the room (which often turns into a small gift basket),” she says, adding: “I genuinely think the ‘hack’ is to be nice.”

She continues: “When she calls the hotel, she’ll literally just ask if they can do something special. It doesn’t always work out, but more often than not she’s able to have a little surprise waiting for us in the hotel room.”

So far, the hotels have never charged Baird’s mom for the gifts, and if they do say it will come at a cost, she doesn’t move forward.

Sometimes, the gifts are simple, and other times, more elaborate.

“When my fiancé and I were traveling to celebrate our anniversary, she got us champagne and chocolate covered strawberries,” Baird tells PEOPLE. “The biggest gift basket I’ve gotten was when I was on a school trip in university over Valentine’s Day. My mom had a huge gift basket created with chips, chocolate, sleeping masks, T-shirts and a reusable water bottle.”

Baird continues: “This hotel was close to the University of Florida so I think they had a lot of university swag at their disposal. It was such a nice surprise that I was able to share with my friends. My mom is seriously the best!”