Travel Guides Solo Travel
Christine Estima
If you’re a solo female traveler, you have to contend with certain issues that solo men just don’t. In certain countries, our attire may be heavily regulated and we may be denied entry into holy temples. In addition to this, we have to deal with certain safety issues that just don’t affect men such as cat-calling, street harassment, gendered violence, and hotel room break-ins. A woman staying at a Holiday Inn in San Jose recorded the moment someone tried slipping a long, hooked device under her door to attempt a hotel room break-in while she was in it, per NBC.
Luckily she was unharmed, but women’s travel network Maiden Voyage surveyed their users and found some disturbing details. “One in four women have suffered a negative incident when traveling on business and 51% of women said that they have, at some point, felt vulnerable when staying in a hotel,” Maiden Voyage founder Carolyn Pearson told Hotel Management International. Pearson also noted that many solo female travelers ended up “placing a chair, suitcase, ironing board and even a chest of drawers behind the door because they didn’t feel safe in a hotel.”
Now, TikTok has come up with a new hack to make you feel safer in your hotel room. Not only will it foil any of those long hook devices slipped under the door, but it will also create a ruckus that should hopefully scare off any potential intruder.
Two drinking glasses on your door handle will foil any break-in
@hotelgrandcentralsg
Do this if you alone in Hotel Room😊🏨 #hotelhacks #hotelliving #hotel #hotelroom #hotels
♬ Everybody Wants To Rule The World – The Moving Stills
TikTok user @hotelgrandcentralsg uploaded a video explaining the simple way to add extra security to your hotel room, and it involves those two drinking glasses you typically find next to the coffee maker and kettle. In the video, they take the glasses and precariously balance them on the hotel room’s door handle. It becomes immediately obvious what would happen should an intruder try to break in. First of all, if they used that long, hooked device that slips under the door in an attempt to pull down the handle, not only would it not latch, preventing them from gaining access, but it would also force the glasses to topple.
That’s where the second layer of security comes in because you might be asleep in your room when the attempted break-in occurs. Once those glasses topple, they will not only cause a noise as they hit the ground, they may even shatter. Now you’re awake and can thwart any intruders by securing the deadbolt and calling the local authorities. Another tip in the video involves stuffing a piece of tissue into the peephole, so no one can attempt to peer into your room.
Former hotel employee Justin Aldrich wrote for Insider that another great safety hack is to bring a door-stopper to every hotel room; one that’s small and light enough to carry in your purse, and is TSA-approved so you can travel with it.
