TikTok reveals woman’s complicated hotel room safety routine

The process is more involved than most would bother with.

For most travellers, locking the door and maybe sliding the deadbolt closed is the extent of your ‘safety protocol’ when staying in a hotel.

This is just the beginning for one woman, whose complex seven-step system has gone viral on TikTok and has been criticised as paranoid.

In the video, which has been viewed 16.1 million times, the woman shows viewers her ‘hotel safety tips’, which first involves placing a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the outside door handle then locking the door and deadlock.

So far, so normal.

Here, however, is where things get quite involved.

She then blocks the peephole with a tissue (step three) and stuffs a facecloth into the deadbolt to “close the gap” (step four).

For step five, she recommends people “block the door by placing an ironing board against the door”.

Finally, she pushes a rolled-up bath towel around the door handle (step six) and uses hangar clips to clip the different towels together.

While the entire routine likely takes around five minutes, many people commented on the video claiming it demonstrated an unnecessary level of precaution.

Several people suggested that, if someone took that many measures, they must be staying somewhere particularly unsafe.

“Pretty sure I’m not staying in a hotel that would require me to do all that,” one person wrote.

“If I’m that scared, I’m not leaving the house,” another added.

One person asked whether this level of care was “an American thing”, as they had never felt the need to block themselves into a hotel room.

Others pointed out that you may be secure inside., but this could be problematic in an emergency.

“What happens if you have an emergency and need help? No one can get in to help you,” one person commented.

“Now you’re not getting out in an emergency,” another added, while a third described the barricade as a “real nice fire hazard”.

Not everyone was critical of her system, and some commenters shared their own security tactics.

“I take two portable locks and a mini-camera that links to my phone for when I’m out,” one person commented.

“This is my level of safety, thank you,” another wrote.