Note: This article was originally published on Sunday, June 17, 2018 at 5:53 in the afternoon and has been updated.
This is a simple reminder for you to remember to lock your door after you enter your hotel room — and not necessarily because someone nefarious may be interested in breaking in and robbing it.
Stupid Tip of the Day: Lock the Door to Your Hotel Room
Although not a common occurrence, having two guests accidentally assigned to the same room happens more often than you might believe — and by simply using the latch or deadbolt on the door to your hotel room, you can very easily prevent someone else with a key that can open the door from unexpectedly entering into your room.
One example is that of FlyerTalk member lotus918: “Totally out of our minds after being awake for nearly 20 hours, Mrs Lotus fell into bed and I was online trying to figure out how to get us back to LAX. About 1:30AM our door is flung open and there’s a guy looking at me in my underwear, and me looking at him asking what the hell he thinks he’s doing? I run to the door and push it shut and lock it (have no idea if he’s about to rob us or what’s going on). Call the front desk and they asked me if I was in the right room (you can’t make this stuff up I swear)! Said they’ll call us back, after ~15 mins I call again and they’re still being evasive until they finally said the person who checked us in didn’t complete the process and they assigned the room to the next person after us.”
Another more common reason to secure your room by locking the door is to prevent a member of the housekeeping staff — or other employee of the hotel or resort property — from barging into your room unexpectedly or without warning. This can even happen despite hanging the Do Not Disturb sign outside of the main door to the room.
Final Boarding Call
I have been fortunate in not recalling during my years or travel ever having some stranger unexpectedly enter my hotel room — or me barging into the hotel room of another guest.
Still, taking a few seconds of your time to prevent a possible intrusion — whether it is accidental or intentional — is so easy to do…
…so please: ensure that your room is secure before retiring for the night.
For additional articles with tips and advice that are incredibly simple, please refer to this Complete Master Guide of Stupid Tip of the Day articles.
All photographs ©2017, ©2018, and ©2024 by Brian Cohen.
