If you travel quite a lot, you know you’ve found yourself in all kinds of accommodations, and you must have run into ‘door issues’ at least a couple of times. Well, sometimes it’s the door sometimes it’s the vibes of a place that’s not making you feel that secure, right? Today, I’m going to tell you how to double-secure your hotel room door so you can have a good night’s rest.
Or your vacation rental’s door…
For more than a couple of years now, for our trips, we’ve been picking vacation rentals over hotel rooms when it comes to accommodation. Of course, they let us ‘live’ someplace rather than just stay there, as the ads say but there’s more to it than just that. There’s more space, there’s more freedom, there’s more we can do in the food department and yes — the kids can run around a little more and make a little more noise than they would be allowed to in a hotel room. The one box that doesn’t always get the tick is that of security.
How safe are your Hotel Rooms / Vacation Rentals?
When we’re home, we can have as many locks as we think are needed to secure our houses, we know where to find what, should we need something in case of an emergency, and we might even have security systems and burglar alarms in place.
When it comes to a vacation rental, we all know it’s a different story. We’ve been in homes that have been extra secure. Some came with extra instructions to ramp up the security and some have been good enough. But then we’ve also had a few not-so-satisfactory instances; bolts that don’t fall in place properly, faulty sliding door locks and things of the sort. And issues like these can make our stay quite uncomfortable, can they not?
A true front door story
Sometime last year, we were on a trip and were staying at a quiet place, not very far from the city but in a locality that is quiet and where the properties are quite well spaced out. When we got there, we had a bit of an issue getting in. The front door had an electronic lock and the code wasn’t really working. Unfortunately for us, the place was being managed by a property management company, and as it had been past 6 o clock in the evening/ off working hours, I guess, it took us a while to get hold of somebody in charge. And then he remotely reset the code and we were able to get in and begin our stay there.
The next evening, however, we had an unpleasant experience. It must have been 8:30 or 9:00 in the night and we were in the middle of a game when we heard the lock beeping, followed by an unwinding kind of noise. And then it happened again; it sounded like somebody was at the door trying to open it. We froze, not sure what to do. It was a quiet and not very populated area. The kids had gone pale and our hearts were beating quite fast. Repeated calling out and asking if there was somebody at the door, was met with no response.
And it took us a while to reach the management company’s person in charge. And when we finally got through, he said hadn’t accessed the door remotely, either.
What happened next felt like we were in an advertisement of some sort. 😀 If we had to be able to sleep that night, we had to feel more secure, right? I just remembered I had some temporary locks we could put on the door knob. (We’d used it on the trip just before that but had let this one be, thinking it was an electronic lock and that that should be enough.)
We did strategize a plan to open the door and insert those locks between the doors — and that involved some pool poles in hand and our older one ready to hit ‘call’ on 911 should there be a need. 😀 Thankfully we didn’t need to use any of those things and managed to do what we needed to, for a fairly restful sleep that night. 👏🏼
How to double secure your hotel room door
This is that simple, portable and super easy solution — A portable door lock.
What the lock does —
This portable door lock works as an insert between the door and the frame, and a part of it acts as a restriction when it comes to turning the knob. It’s easy to insert if you understand how it works.
Now here’s a demo made just for you —
Don’t you think this would add an extra layer of security?
I would highly recommend this product for vacation rental doors. It’s tried and tested. This could even work on motel doors and hostel doors! Other reasons to buy them–
— you don’t need tools to install them
— you are not going to damage any doors/locks while using them
— they can come in handy in certain situations like the one mentioned above.
I’m not traveling without these, anymore. If you think these might be of use to you, you might want to consider buying it. Here’s a link you could use —
Disclosure: This is an affiliate link and I might make a tiny commission on a purchase at NO EXTRA COST to you.
Gift Idea! This would make a great gift/ stocking stuffer for that friend/ member of your family who travels a lot. If you are looking for something for new parents, here are some suggestions — 10 Things that make traveling with Baby easier.
Do you have a safety tip or trick or product you use on your travels? Let me know in the comments.
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