Episode 663 - Hotel Room Security

In this episode, listen in as Jeremy demonstrates what are the things you can do in order to tighten your hotel room security.

Hotel Room Security - Episode 663

Have you ever had a nasty experience when it comes to your hotel room security? If you want to be extra cautious when you check into your hotel room during a trip, you’re in for a couple of tips. In this episode, In this episode, check out Jeremy as he demonstrates what are the things you can do in order to tighten your hotel room security.

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Show Transcript

You can read the transcript below.

Jeremy Lesniak: 

Hey everybody, today we're gonna talk about hotel safety, hotel room safety. And yeah we've already been in this room. But let's walkthrough, let's pretend this is our first time going out. So obviously, I've got my key. Ideally, if I'm walking down a long hallway, it's dark, maybe you're in a motel without door exposure, that key should be in your hand before you get to the door. So I've got the key door open. So we come in, and the first thing I'm going to do, I'm not going to just let that door shut, I'm going to make sure that door shuts, because if I let it drift, someone may come in behind me. Now obviously, depending on where you are, who you are, circumstances, you've got lots of things that may be more likely than others. But I'm going to approach this from pretty much the worst-case scenario. And you can implement these things how you want, so I'm going to make sure that door shuts.

Now, every time I'm in here. If there's a chain, that chain is on, there's a deadbolt, I can manually turn, those are turning, why? Because why not use more security when you have access to it. Okay, so the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to evaluate this room. First thing I'm gonna do when I come in beyond this, I guess the second thing I'm going to do is, does it look like somebody has been staying here? You ever been given a key to a hotel room and somebody else was already there? Yeah, that happens. If that can happen, it can happen to someone else. Okay. So I'm evaluating does this room look safe? Does it look like somebody has been in it? Now, obviously, Andrew and I have been here for 24 hours or so. So there's stuff around, but pretend that stuff isn't there. Let's take a walk through. I've got to turn lights on. First thing I'm going to do is I'm going to make a quick pass, you know, is the window open? No, there's nobody that appears to be hiding somewhere that's gonna murder me. Is that ridiculous? Yeah, absolutely. But it takes three seconds. So next thing I'm going to do, I'm going to go to the window and make sure that window is locked. We're on a first floor, I prefer not to be on the first floor. But we didn't have a choice here. Okay, that window looks good. These folks even know what they're doing. They've got a security stick, so if I wanted to crack the window, I could do that one a little bit. Depending on your perspective, I would do the same thing about other window there.

Now the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to take a look for where all the light switches are. All the electrical outlets, make sure there's nothing weird going on. You ever stepped into a maybe a lower end hotel and some bare wires, or some things going on that could create a fire hazard? Yep, I have. I've stayed in a lot of places. So what do I do there, I just make sure I unplugged that stuff. Something that I can 0:2:49 interesting dynamic here. So, we've got two rooms here. Now you've probably been in a hotel room where you've got this adjoining room thing going on, right? Like, even if you're not staying with people in the next room. Right, if you've got that second door. Hopefully it goes without saying. But if this was one of those rooms, I would want to make sure that this door was locked. Because unless both people have it locked, there's a security hazard there. I'm not going to break into their room, but I don't know about them. So I'm going to make sure that that door is locked.

The next thing I'm going to do depending on the time I come in, if I'm coming in in the evening, most of the time, I'm going to be in a hotel room in the evening, I'm going to sleep that's pretty much the main reason we get hotel rooms, I'm going to make sure this is set up securely. Now, people will make a big deal about oh, I want to be in the bed that's farthest from the door closest to the door. It's a split second difference. It's all but irrelevant. If I have a choice, yeah, maybe I want to be in this one because it's a little bit further from the door. It's a little bit closer to the window. Maybe I can get out the window. If there's fire a little bit sooner. It's pretty unlikely to make a difference. But if we look around, what are the things that we've done? We don't have stuff laying all over the place here. The top of the bed, Ben ruffle skirt, whatever. I don't know, that thing. Fell off the bed overnight. But one of the things that I generally bring when I stay in a hotel room is pepper spray. Like any tool, I should be training with it. This one I don't. I keep the plastic on it less likely to go off in my bag. So that's there. Is it something I want to use in a confined space? No, but we have to balance our defensive options with laws. Bringing a firearm into this space in the way that I would is not legal where we are. Okay. We could have a whole discussion about whether or not that should or what, doesn't matter. We're trying to follow the rules as they are. This key should be in my pocket at all times.

I could check to make sure the phone works seems work. That's a security thing, not as big of a deal over the last 15 years since everybody has cell phones. Notice that these curtains are shut. Yeah, it's nice overnight when, light outs, especially if you're the city. But do I want people to park there? Looking in? What's going on? Maybe you do. I don't, I have no desire for that. I'm going to keep that shut, especially if I'm on the first floor. Okay. Now, let's say there isn't a chain here. Let's say there's no way for me to prevent someone getting in from the inside. If they have a key, you know, some unscrupulous hotel worker, right? Or who knows, whatever, oh, I don't like cleaning staff in my room, at a hotel overnight, I'm not going to dirty up my house in 24 to 48 hours that I feel the need for people to come in. If you feel differently, that's fine. But I can't get to the level of security of physical possessions that I think is a minimum standard. If you do, you're probably not watching this video anyway. So I'll just say, Hey, can I have a towel or whatever if I need something. But let's say this chain is not here. And I want to prevent somebody from getting in. If I don't have something to barricade the door, let's say there's no chain here. It's gonna be really hard on this pile, let's pretend there's some carpet there. And I'll show you what we can do with in this actual situation where there's tile. Okay, so I can take a towel, I can roll it up. And I can use my key to wedge it under the door, create some more friction. You can see it's got less give, you know, it will certainly open here. And that's because there's no friction. I can't do anything about that. But it was carpet, that would work really well. Now, what would I do? If I'm talking about talking about tile like that, the best thing I can do. So what would we do in the event where we have tile here, and you didn't bring some fancy rubber doorstop that you can wedge under there, which by the way, you can get pretty cheaply like home supply store, Home Depot kind of thing. I can set something up, that's going to create some noise. So the best thing that we've got here take these footstool sort of things, they don't weigh too much. Put it on the side, it's got a decent amount of friction. To put that there. It makes a lot more noise in the door by itself. Now, if you really want to go fancy with it. You could set up where something's gonna make some real noise. I could set something up on here, right? Like you bring bring your shoes on like that.

Why would I not want to do that? Because what if there's a fire? Statistically there's more likely that someone breaking into your room than is there being a fire. So you've got to balance this, like anything we do in martial arts, you have to balance safety is a balance with like, it's just living life. It's safer to stay in your home. But life doesn't happen on your own, you've got to leave the house. So same kind of deal here.

I think the number one takeaway I want you to have from this episode, is I want you to consider safety in places that are not your home. Most of us have thought about our home, how do I keep my home safe? Where are the fire extinguishers? Are my doors locked, windows locked, things like that. We think about it with our car. Do I have tissues? Do I have change of clothes? Do I have, you know coins for tolls that those aren't necessarily safety things, but they're prepared things. A lot of us when we go out into the real world. We don't think so much about safety because we're in someone else's space. When we go to someone else's home. We don't think so much about safety. But I'd like to encourage you to take that same approach that same perspective of you know, things can do go wrong. What control do I have over some of them and implement some of those. If we went down the rabbit hole on every single tip we could do in a hotel role. This thing would be way too long. So I'd rather cut it here. If you have ideas, tips, other things you want to add for people, drop them in the comments. Otherwise, Thanks for watching and listening.