What’s the use case? All the hotels I stayed at needed a key card to enter (outside door handle won’t work without), and some of them even allowed you to lock against that… is it to protect against staff? Abusive partners who left the room? Or are other hotels different?
The thing is that the inside lock can always be bypassed from the outside by staff. One of the best measures against that is a little strap that makes it possible to physically keep the little latch in place. When it’s overwritten it normally snaps back, but that strap keeps it in place.
Protecting against staff is one thought, also against people who really want to get in your room like abusive partners and such.
I totally understand why being in a room that for a fact can easily be opened by a stranger can be quite unsettling to people, especially women.
Bingo. It’s not the door lock protecting you in a hotel, it’s the front desk person choosing whether or not to give your key out to strangers applying a little social engineering pressure. “He seemed like a nice guy and he said it was his wife’s room, so I gave him a key”.
At least key cards won’t open the manual locks on these:
The door can’t be opened without a card even when “unlocked”, and the manual lock will keep the door closed until someone uses a physical key.
But I guess you can’t know in advance if your hotel has these (though I don’t remember staying in a hotel in the last 5 years that didn’t). Though I’d think a hotel could get into a lot of legal trouble if they just gave out keys to rooms to guests that aren’t listed in the reservation…
Both the automatic lock and privacy lock can be instantly unlocked with the right key card. Of course you hope only the hotel has those, and that they’re secured, and those who have access can be trusted… but you never really know. Even the deadbolt/lock bar can be opened from the outside with the right tool. Be safe out there!
What’s the use case? All the hotels I stayed at needed a key card to enter (outside door handle won’t work without), and some of them even allowed you to lock against that… is it to protect against staff? Abusive partners who left the room? Or are other hotels different?
The thing is that the inside lock can always be bypassed from the outside by staff. One of the best measures against that is a little strap that makes it possible to physically keep the little latch in place. When it’s overwritten it normally snaps back, but that strap keeps it in place.
Protecting against staff is one thought, also against people who really want to get in your room like abusive partners and such.
I totally understand why being in a room that for a fact can easily be opened by a stranger can be quite unsettling to people, especially women.
Bingo. It’s not the door lock protecting you in a hotel, it’s the front desk person choosing whether or not to give your key out to strangers applying a little social engineering pressure. “He seemed like a nice guy and he said it was his wife’s room, so I gave him a key”.
At least key cards won’t open the manual locks on these:
The door can’t be opened without a card even when “unlocked”, and the manual lock will keep the door closed until someone uses a physical key.
But I guess you can’t know in advance if your hotel has these (though I don’t remember staying in a hotel in the last 5 years that didn’t). Though I’d think a hotel could get into a lot of legal trouble if they just gave out keys to rooms to guests that aren’t listed in the reservation…
Both the automatic lock and privacy lock can be instantly unlocked with the right key card. Of course you hope only the hotel has those, and that they’re secured, and those who have access can be trusted… but you never really know. Even the deadbolt/lock bar can be opened from the outside with the right tool. Be safe out there!