A well-traveled flight attendant revealed what she does every time she checks into a new hotel room to make sure it’s safe and no one is lurking in the dark.
The crew member named Lea shared the tips she’s gained from staying at countless hotels for work in a TikTok video shared by CNNUnderscored.
Step one, she said, is propping open her hotel room door to ensure she can make a speedy escape if needed.
“First I put my bag in the door to prop it open because I want to make sure I can leave quickly if the room is unsafe,” Lea said in the video, which shows her running through her safety checks.
She then thoroughly searches the room to make sure she is alone.
“Then I check every area to make sure that there is no one hiding in my room,” she said. “And believe me it happens.”
The flight attendant peers inside a wardrobe, a dresser with doors, under the bed and in the shower to search for any intruders, the TikTok clip shows.
Lea revealed a special tip she picked up from a colleague when checking behind the curtains.
“A senior flight attendant once told me to always use a hanger when checking behind the curtains because if they grab something, it won’t be me,” she said.
Once she’s satisfied that the room is clear, the attendant uses a special lock for the door and a doorstop alarm for added safety.
The tips and tricks left many feeling conflicted in the comments. Some found the suggestions helpful while others felt saddened that they were needed at all.
“As a woman remembering all this information to stay safe overwhelms me,” one commenter wrote. “I feel at that moment I’ll forget.”
Another suggested adding a safety tip to test the hotel room phone to ensure it works and check that the windows are locked.
“New fear unlocked,” one woman commented on the video.
Last week, a former FBI and CIA agent shared some hotel safety tips of her own — including which rooms to book.
Tracy Walder, 44, said she always tries to book a room between the third and sixth floors due to their proximity to the main level for emergency access, but harder for intruders to reach.
“When it comes to floor level, there’s two things — first is entering. Typically, someone who’s trying to do harm is going to go the easiest way that they can and that would be entering through the first floor as it is most accessible,” Walder said.
“With getting out, if you’re too high on the 20th floor or 21st floor — it’s going to be really difficult for you to get out quickly.”
