Traveling as a queer person, a woman, a person of color, a trans or non-binary person can be quite hard. This is why you need to know how to secure your hotel room because nobody is just going to rely on that old lock that everyone has a key to. This might sound psychotic to some, but if you are a minority, then you ought to know what it takes to protect yourself, whether it is in another state or a different country.
You never know who else has a key to your home or even how good the deadbolt is; this is why you need to have the gadget to secure your room. So, without further ado, let’s get into the list of things you ought to have to secure your hotel room.
1. Portable door lock
One of the most straightforward ways to lock your door and secure yourself is by using a portable door lock, and it is an added layer of protection. Nowadays, portable door locks come in a variety of shapes, styles, and colors, but they all work in a similar way. They prevent the door from opening inwards.
Though most hotel doors open inwards, some open outward, and if your hotel room is the latter, then the portable door lock is redundant. Most of them come with a piece that attaches to the metal plate where the existing lock does, and another piece sits across the back of the door.
When the lock is placed and secured, it prevents the door from opening unless someone physically breaks the said door down. The mechanism of the portable door lock adds vertical pressure to the door, makes the lock more secure, and keeps it tightly in place.
2. Travel door alarm
Unlike the other 2 gadgets in our list, this one won’t prevent your room access as its name suggests. But a door alarm will make a loud and alarming sound when someone opens the door, and this will surely scare most people away.
A typical door alarm is a piece of equipment that hangs dorm the poor handle. It has 2 metal blades or prongs that push between the door and the door frame. If someone opens the door from the outside, then the prongs fall apart, and it starts making an alarming sound.
It is a simple yet effective way of keeping people from entering your room. The one advantage of this type of security system, unlike the other 2 on our list, is that it works on any kind of door. They work whether the door opens inwards or outwards.
Like the next gadget on our list, it just takes a few seconds to set up and keep you secure through your stay unless you remove it. This means that you don’t spend a long time removing and reinstalling it when you enter and leave your room.
3. Door wedge
This is an extremely cheap and reliable way to make sure that it is more challenging to get inside your room. If you are an avid traveler like me, then you know that most travels swear by their rubber door wedge, which adds an extra layer of security to your hotel room.
They are not only cheap, but they also take little to no space in your bag and can be something that you have in your backpack at all times. On top of that, it only takes a few seconds to set up and is something you can do as soon as you get into your hotel room.
There are some door wedges that come with Velcro strips that prevent them from sliding on the carpet. They work best on hard surfaces like hardwood floors or tiles. For extra security, we recommend buying a door wedge that has an alarm on them; when someone opens the door, they will sound off.
Final thought
Keep your door open with your suitcase when you enter your hotel room. Do a quick sweep through the room to check that there is no one in there. Yes, this is something that you ought to do. By leaving your hotel room’s door open, you are giving yourself a quick way out in case there is really someone with you in the room.
So do check all the places that someone can hide in, check under the bed, inside the closet, and the bathroom. If there is someone in your room, then bolt out and start shouting because better safe than sorry in these cases. It is you first, then people. This might seem really paranoid, but as a minority, we ought to protect ourselves.
You can get these gadgets on amazon, and most travelers swear by them because they keep us secure and safe whenever we travel. They allow us to sleep on both ears, especially when you are traveling to a foreign country.
Remember, be safe and protect yourself. Sound off in the comments section below and tell us your thought on the gadgets on this list.
