For anxious travelers, a flight attendant shared her top safety tips for preventing hotel room break-ins.
Cici, 51, from Florida, who uses the username @cici.inthesky on social media, regularly posts safety tips, saying room break-ins are more common than you might think.
In one of her TikToks, the travel professional reveals how you can lean an ironing board against the door as a temporary deterrent to burglars.
She explains: “You can just take your ironing board, lean it against the door and say ‘Bam’. If anyone tries to enter you will hear it loud and clear.”
Florida-based Cici regularly publishes security hacks. In a TikTok, the travel professional reveals how you can lean an ironing board against the door as a temporary deterrent to burglars
Cici checks hotel rooms before entering the hotel, and while she does so she leaves the door open with her luggage. She also carries personal safety equipment with her at all times
Many viewers have thanked Cici for her safety tips. One fan wrote, “We just got back from an 18 day vacation and checked into every hotel room we checked into.” I made sure to follow your safety tips.
Her other impromptu security tricks include blocking the peephole with tissue paper and using two coat hangers connected together at the latch and door handle to prevent the handle from being pushed all the way down.
If you have more time to prepare before your trip, Cici recommends investing in an alarm door wedge, available on Amazon for about $10.
She usually places one under the main hotel room door and takes another with her in case there is an adjoining room to navigate.
To prepare for a fire, Cici recommends counting the number of steps from your room to the exit stairwell in case it’s too dark or too smoky to see.
In another clip, the travel-loving traveler shows how she always checks hotel rooms before entering, leaving the door with her luggage open.
She says it’s because rooms may not be available because hotel staff double-booked the same room.
The travel professional explains: “I had several situations and I know that people also had other situations.”
“Once I walked into a hotel room that was already occupied when I had my kids and the man screamed, scaring us all to death.”
“That’s when I found out how common it seems that they book a room twice.”
After settling into her room, Cici says she always uses her security techniques to ensure the door cannot be opened easily.
Another device that Cici regularly promotes is a personal security alarm in case of an attack. She says she always has one strapped to her bag and it’s “very, very loud.”
Her other impromptu security tricks include blocking the peephole with tissue paper and putting the privacy shield on the outside of the door
To prevent her hotel room door from being opened, Cici uses an alarm wedge. She also shows how you can use two coat hangers that are connected to each other with a latch and door handle
She also makes sure the phone in her room works, and finally she puts up the privacy sign outside to warn passers-by not to enter.
Cici says she felt unsafe in hotels after “discovering how easy it was for someone to break into my room” and “use simple methods to gain entry.”
In addition to thieves targeting hotel rooms, according to Cici, it is also common for hotel employees to enter rooms without permission.
Recalling an uncomfortable incident, she said, “Another time the housekeeper came into my room while I was in the shower, which terrified me again.”
“I didn’t have a bolt on my room.”
Many viewers have thanked Cici for her safety tips.
One fan wrote, “We just got back from an 18 day vacation and checked into every hotel room we checked into.” I made sure to follow your safety tips. Thank you.’
Another commenter said they use Cici’s ironing board trick, but if there isn’t an ironing board in their room, they use the luggage rack instead.
An onlooker revealed that they were given an alarm door wedge on Cici’s advice, but forgot they put it under their door and accidentally set it off themselves.
Another device that Cici regularly promotes is a personal security alarm in case of an attack.
She says she always has one on her and it’s “very, very loud when you take it off”.