Hotel Room Security: A Practical Guide to Sleeping Safely in Hotels and Airbnbs

December 15, 2025

You lock the hotel room door, slide the chain, and get into bed. But someone else has a key to that door. Housekeeping. The front desk. Possibly a previous guest who kept a copy. Airbnbs are worse: the host, their cleaning crew, anyone who stayed before you.

Room 320. Electronic lock. Housekeeping, front desk staff, and maintenance all have access. How many keycard copies exist for this door?

I've traveled enough to stop assuming hotel rooms are secure by default. They're not. The lock on the door is a shared secret between you and everyone who works at that property. This isn't paranoia. It's just how hotels work.

Here's what I actually do when I check in somewhere unfamiliar.

Check the door hardware first

Before you unpack, look at what you're working with.

The deadbolt: Most hotel doors have a deadbolt that engages automatically when the door closes. This keeps out other guests, but staff master keys override it. The deadbolt alone does not keep everyone out.

The chain or swing bar: Many hotel rooms have a secondary latch (chain, swing bar, or flip lock) that can only be engaged from inside. This is your most important physical barrier. It prevents the door from opening fully even with a master key. Use it every single time.

Check the peephole while you're at it. Make sure it works and hasn't been tampered with. Some budget properties skip them entirely.

The peephole: Check that it's there, that it works, and that it hasn't been reversed (a reversed peephole lets someone outside see in). If there's no peephole, you have zero visibility into who's on the other side of that door.

Connecting doors: If your room has a connecting door to the adjacent room, check that it's locked from your side. Jiggle it. These are often overlooked and sometimes left unlocked.

Physical barriers that actually help

Beyond the hardware already on the door:

A portable door lock: These are small devices (around $15-25) that fit into the door strike plate and prevent the door from opening even if someone has a key. They work on most standard hotel door gaps. Search for "portable door lock for travel" and you'll find several options. They weigh almost nothing and fit in a pocket.

A rubber door wedge: The simplest option. Jam it under the door from the inside. It won't stop a determined person, but it adds friction and makes a noise. You can buy a set of two for a few dollars. Pack them in your bag and forget about them until you need them.

A door alarm: Small battery-powered alarms that hang on the door handle or sit against the door. When the door opens, the alarm triggers. Cheap, lightweight, effective as a noise deterrent.

The Airbnb problem

Hotels at least have front desks, security cameras in hallways, and some accountability. Airbnbs are different.

Beautiful. Private. And the host has a key. So does the cleaner. And maybe the neighbor who waters the plants.

With an Airbnb, you're sleeping in someone's property. They have keys. They may have given keys to cleaners, co-hosts, or neighbors. Some properties have keypad locks where the code doesn't change between guests. Sliding glass doors often have weak locks. Ground floor units are accessible from outside.

I don't say this to scare you out of using Airbnb. I use it regularly. But the security model is "trust the host," and that trust is based on reviews from strangers. A little preparation goes a long way.

Adding a tech layer: motion detection while you sleep

Physical barriers slow someone down. But you also want to know if someone gets past them. You want to wake up.

This is where I use Alarmist. It turns the LiDAR sensor on an iPhone Pro into a motion detection alarm. Position the phone on a nightstand, point it at the door, arm the app. If anyone enters the room, you get an immediate loud alarm that ignores Silent Mode.

The reason I use LiDAR instead of a camera app is simple: cameras need light. When the room is dark and you're trying to sleep, a camera sees nothing. LiDAR fires invisible infrared beams and measures depth. It works in total darkness without emitting any visible light.

Layered hotel room security: the deadbolt keeps casual intruders out, the chain prevents full door opening, a door wedge adds physical resistance, and LiDAR monitoring wakes you up if someone enters.

The phone sits on the nightstand, screen dark. If someone opens that door and walks through, the depth reading at the doorway changes dramatically, and the alarm fires. It can also turn on the flashlight and capture a photo.

Intruder detected. The depth heatmap shows the person's silhouette entering through the doorway. The alarm fires at full volume, ignoring Silent Mode.

A checklist for when you check in

I've turned this into a mental checklist I run through in the first two minutes after entering any hotel room or Airbnb:

1. Lock the deadbolt. Obviously.
2. Engage the chain or swing bar. This is the one people forget. Do it every time.
3. Check connecting doors. Locked from your side?
4. Check the peephole. Present, functional, not reversed?
5. Place a door wedge if you brought one.
6. Set up your phone aimed at the door and arm Alarmist before sleep.
7. Keep your phone plugged in. LiDAR monitoring drains battery.
8. Test the alarm before relying on it. Every room is different.

None of these steps take more than a minute. Together they create multiple layers: physical barriers that slow entry and an alert system that wakes you up.

Don't rely on any single layer

The goal isn't to make the room impenetrable. It's to make sure you wake up if something happens.

No single measure is foolproof. The deadbolt has a master key. The chain can be cut. A door wedge can be kicked loose. A motion alarm could be avoided by someone who moves very slowly (though LiDAR's sensitivity settings make this difficult).

The point is layers. Each one makes unauthorized entry harder and louder. The combination of physical barriers plus an active alert system means you're more likely to wake up and respond, which is the actual goal. You're not trying to build a vault. You're trying to sleep with some peace of mind in a room that isn't yours.

I'm not a security professional. I'm someone who travels, sleeps in unfamiliar rooms, and wants to know if the door opens at 3am. This is what works for me.