When Viajero del Terminal checks into a hotel, the door does not close behind him. He pushes his suitcase into the doorway so it stays wide open, then walks around the entire room before unpacking anything, checking the bathroom, the closet and behind the curtains. He says it looks like he is hunting for ghosts, but if someone is in that room who should not be, he wants an open door behind him, not a locked one.
He learned the habit from a retired police detective who worked 28 years, and he says many of her calls came from hotels. She told him the problems she saw almost never started with a break-in in the middle of the night. They started with little things people did in the first 5 minutes. Here are the 10 things she taught him, counted down.
10. Keep The Door Open Until You Check The Room
Most people let the door close and lock behind them, then sit on the bed. But hotels make mistakes, and a front desk clerk can give out a room that is already occupied, or a housekeeper or maintenance worker could still be inside. Once the door shuts, you are stuck behind it together.
So prop the door with your suitcase, turn on all the lights, and take a 30-second walk-through. Look in the bathroom and behind the shower curtain, open the closet, check behind the drapes and make sure the window or balcony door is locked. If something is wrong, step back into the hallway and call the front desk. If you find someone else’s things, do not touch them, and ask for another room because this one seems to have been given out twice.
9. Never Let The Employee Say Your Room Number Out Loud
When the clerk announces your room number across a busy lobby, everyone nearby learns where you are sleeping and that you just arrived. Many hotels train staff to write the number on the paper key envelope and point to it, but a busy lobby can make them forget. Ask politely for them to write it down instead of saying it, and if they say it anyway, quietly ask for a different room.
He adds one habit. Keep the paper envelope with the number in your pocket, not with the key, so whoever finds a dropped key does not also find the room it opens. He tells travelers to treat the room number like a bank card PIN.
8. Ask For A Floor Between Three And Six
The detective would skip the ground floor, since its windows or sliding doors often face a parking lot or walkway and it is the easiest room to break into from outside. Going too high brings a fire problem. He says many fire safety experts suggest not staying higher than the sixth or seventh floor because that is as far as many fire department ladders reach.
The sweet spot is in the middle, and not too far from the elevator, so you are not dragging a suitcase down a long empty hallway late at night. There is no guarantee on a busy night, but he says you often get it just by asking.
7. Count The Doors To The Stairs
Few people read the map on the back of the room door. Yet in a fire alarm at 3 a.m. the hallway could be dark or filling with smoke, the elevator is off limits, and the lit exit signs are up high near the ceiling, the first place smoke covers. He says the National Fire Protection Association tells guests to find two exits and count the doors between the room and each one.
On your first walk to the room, go to the stair door, counting the doors on the way and saying the number out loud. Then find the second exit in the other direction and push the stair door to make sure it opens. If it is stuck or blocked, tell the front desk right away. Two minutes on the first night, he says, and you could find the exit with your eyes closed.
6. Use Every Lock Every Time
Most hotel doors have a deadbolt and a security bar or chain. The detective told him the bar is the weaker of the two, and news reports have shown it can be opened from the hall with a simple tool. The deadbolt is the lock that really holds, so use both, not just at night.
Also lock the connecting door to the next room from your side, and lock and tug any balcony or sliding glass door. For another layer, a small rubber door wedge with a built-in alarm slides under the door, and if someone pushes, the wedge tightens and sounds a loud alarm. He says they cost around $10 to $15 and weigh almost nothing.
5. Never Open The Door To Someone You Did Not Call
A knock comes with a claim of housekeeping, maintenance or room service. The detective called it one of the oldest tricks around, because a dark shirt and a clipboard can pass for a hotel uniform and the person in the hall is counting on you to be polite. If you did not ask for anyone, do not open up.
Look through the peephole, say through the door that you will call the front desk to check, then use the room phone to do it. A real worker will be happy to wait a minute, and he says someone who is not real will usually just walk away.
4. If The Front Desk Calls About Your Card, Hang Up
Late at night the room phone rings, and a polite voice says a computer glitch kept your card from going through and asks you to read the number again. It sounds real because it comes over the hotel phone, but he says it is a stranger calling room by room hoping someone is half-asleep. The Better Business Bureau and AARP have warned travelers about this scam.
The front desk already has your card from check-in. Say you will come down in the morning, hang up, and give no digits, not even the last four. In the morning, go to the desk in person, where he says they will most likely tell you there was never a problem.
3. Do Not Order From The Menu Under Your Door
A flyer on the floor for a pizza place or Chinese food promises fast delivery to your room. Some of those flyers are fake, and when you call, the person takes your card number and the food never arrives. The Better Business Bureau has warned about these menus too.
Even if the restaurant is real, hotels usually do not allow someone sliding papers under every door. Call the front desk and ask for a nearby restaurant that delivers, or use an app you already trust from home.
2. Save Your Key For The Last 10 Steps
Almost everyone pulls out the key card a few steps before the door, and the detective told him that is backwards. A key in your hand shows anyone behind you which door is yours. As you approach, glance behind you. If a stranger is there, walk right past your door to the end of the hall or back to the elevator, or go back down and tell the front desk.
If the hall is empty, take out the key, open the door, step in and let it close behind you in one motion, then engage both locks. The same goes for the elevator: if the person next to you feels off, step back out and say you forgot something, because another elevator will come in a minute.
1. Prepare The Room For 3 A.M.
The detective said this one sends the most older travelers from a hotel room to the hospital, and it has nothing to do with strangers. In a dark, unfamiliar room, people lose track of the light switch and trip over a suitcase on the way to the bathroom. He cites the CDC saying falls are the leading cause of injury for adults 65 and older.
Before bed, take 2 minutes. Leave the bathroom light on with the door open a crack as a nightlight. Clear a path between the bed and the bathroom by moving the suitcase to the wall and the shoes out of the way. Put your glasses, phone and room key together on the nightstand with a pair of shoes on the floor by the bed, so if the fire alarm sounds you can put on your glasses, grab your phone and key, slip into your shoes and go.
At the door, touch it with the back of your hand. If it is cool, open it, stay low and follow your count of seven to the stairs. If it is hot, keep it closed and call the front desk or 911 with your room number. In all her years, the detective saw very few travelers hurt by a stranger and many more hurt by a dark room and a suitcase on the floor. Light, path, nightstand, every night, even on a short trip.
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