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My mother-in-law recently sent me a story from the Daily Express, a UK newspaper. The story, titled, “Flight attendant shares hotel room tip to stay safe on holiday” has a couple of good tips but I have better ones, so I figured I’d share them.
Nassim, a former flight attendant told Express.co.uk that she doesn’t always feel safe in her hotel room because she was once told “a story where a crew member had gone into their hotel room and not checked it out properly and someone had hidden in the room” and they got attacked.
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Nassim says that because of this, every time she goes into a hotel room, she uses her luggage to keep the hotel door open. She goes on to say, “I then go inside and check everywhere. I would check the bathroom, under the bed, inside the wardrobes, under the table and behind the curtains to make sure that no one was in there.”
I dated a United flight attendant for four years and she too heard a similar story and would always check every possible hiding spot in a room before going to sleep. But keeping your door ajar with your bag while you go search your room is actually increasing your chances of being attacked or robbed. By keeping your door open, someone could easily sneak in, then shut the door.
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If I was worried about someone hiding in my room and if I was traveling with someone else, then I would have them stand by the door while I checked. Or better yet, I would ask hotel security to sweep the room while you wait outside the door because if there is someone in the room, they most likely have a weapon.
Nassim also said some hotels don’t have security chains for doors so she would rely on the lock and place her bag in front “in case someone would open it from the outside so that it would make a noise.” That’s not a bad idea but a better option would be to buy a doorstopper lock that has an alarm on it.
Nassim has a couple of other tips, which you can read in the article, but her best tip is never going into an elevator with just one person and pressing your floor. Instead, Nassim advises waiting in the lobby for the next elevator and going alone. KEEP READING: Can You Identify the Airline By Its Flight Attendant Uniforms?
