How to secure against hotel room invasions

While vacations and travel are ideally tranquil trips that can put a mind at ease, it is important that travellers are constantly aware of their surroundings. This is especially true for hotel security, retired Navy SEAL Clint Emerson writes in his book 100 Deadly Skills.

Travellers in “high-risk regions may wish … to construct additional fortifications” in their hotel rooms as doors and locks can be particularly flimsy, according to Emerson. Additionally, stolen keys and corrupt hotel workers may also provide easy access to the room regardless of the door’s strength.

As doors remain the number one route of entry into hotel rooms, Emerson encourages travellers to learn the following skills to prevent hotel room invasions while travellers are still in the room lounging, sleeping, or using the bathroom.

For hotel doors that open outwards into the hallway, travellers should attach a nylon line from the room’s doorknob to an immobile position in the hotel room. This could be the leg of the bed or another locked doorknob elsewhere in the room.

For doors that open inwards, travellers have more protection options. One potential option is to wedge doorjambs around the area of the door frame. This would reinforce the entirety of the door against being kicked in.

Additionally, security devices can be purchased that prevent a door from swinging inwards. As a last resort, furniture in the hotel room can be piled in front of the hotel room door to create an immovable barricade.

Jeremy Bender contributed to an earlier version of this post.

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