Aside from the toilet seat, the remote control is one of the dirtiest items in a hotel room. God knows what has touched that thing and the stories it could tell.
Instead of worrying whether or not it's been sanitized (hint: chances are it probably hasn't), pack a plastic freezer bag on top of all of your clothes in your suitcase. That way, when you start unpacking your luggage at your destination, it will be the first thing you see so that you don't forget to wrap it. Nothing worse than wanting to watch some TV in bed after a fresh shower and not having already wrapped it.
If you don't have a plastic bag, saran wrap will work just as well.