Our group is looking to save some money and make some of our meals in our room.  We're bringing a large cooler for drinks and things like lunch meat.  We visited some friends at a convention last year that had brought along a rice cooker and a slow cooker.  I thought this was a brilliant way to save some time and money by not going out to eat.  Until someone pointed out that some hotels might kick you out for just having a slow cooker or anything like it in your room.

I guess I was just wondering if anyone has done/does this or knows specific hotel policies?  We are staying at the Westin.  I've scoured their site and could not find any type of "prohibited items" list or anything close to that.  

I have never done this, but I stay in hotels a lot for work and I would recommend if you bring any kind of appliance like that, put up the Do Not Disturb sign and don't get housekeeping. If you leave a crock pot on unattended in the room, that could be seen as a fire hazard liability. Although I don't think you would get kicked out, I wouldn't be surprised if you came back to find your crockpot or rice cooker unplugged if you had it running.

You could always call and ask as well. 

Depends on the hotel, but most that aren’t “inn” types, or extended stays, probably don’t allow cooking.  If the hotel offers smoking rooms, try to get one, and put whatever you have as far from the smoke detector as possible.

Which hotel? I believe Home 2 Suites and possibly one other (?) has rooms with kitchenettes. Granted, if you're not in one of those hotels you're outta luck, but you may want to check your hotel's website and see.

While housekeeping can't throw out things like stored snacks and cooler food, a full-service hotel certainly does not have any incentive to encourage guests to cook or save money on food when they could be buying meals from the hotel. 

Options for cooking in suite is usually limited to long term hotels,(residence inn for example) which have facilities for cooking.  

While bringing your own food (a time honored tradition of the frugal traveler) will generally not get you in trouble, cooking appliances (hot plate, crock pot, instant pot, smokeless indoor grill, hibachi) can get you thrown out for creating a fire hazard.

Reread the OP. Yeah, the Westin's rooms or suites don't have kitchens the last time I looked. Not only that, I think they'd probably object to crock pots and the like. But, there's no harm in asking. 

I don't know if the Westin has them, but some hotels do have microwaves in them.  Depending where you are coming from, you could always cook some stuff the day or two before, stuff them in a cooler for the trip, store them in the mini-fridge, then reheat in the microwave.

Don't count out the coffee maker in your room...

I'm just sayin'.

We purchase two Hot Logic Mini's to try doing a little cooking in our room for lunch.  It really looks just like a lunch bag that slow cooks food to 165.  I am going to precook up some pulled pork, chicken, etc. and then just heat it back up in it. We did a few test runs at a home and so far it is working well. The do not disturb sign is a good idea.

If you can keep food cold enough to hold cooked food at safe temps long term, you could look up meal prep foods that can be eaten cold. I make things like these Honey Chipotle Meatballs and they taste good cold or hot. Then you don't have to worry about starting fires or getting kicked out.