Hotel rooms should have internal lock?

Oh and realistically especially in cheapo hotels most cleaners are female. Especially if there are 5 of them. This is a kinda weird story

5 male cleaners? Is this real? Even at 5* hotels they send 2 at most. Anyway not to be dismissive but this is why as a single woman you always travel with a travel hotel door lock.

I use a wedge with built in alarm. Even in premium hotels with internal locks. They are not as secure as you might think.

Dont know why his race has anything to do with it. He could have been English or Italian and your daughter would have had the same experience. These things are not exclusive to a race. Anyway, next time she travels alone there are certain locks you can send with her to place on hotel door, and extra safety stuff including like an alarm that goes off if door opened, that generally women who travel alone use. Google/GPT for more.

The best tip I received for solo travel was to pack a rubber door wedge. I leave mine in my case so I always have it when I travel. Once wedged at the bottom of the door, the door won't open.

I’m sure skin colour has any bearing on whether someone speaks English!

You could Amazon prime door wedges to the hotel for them to pick up tomorrow.
I always take door wedges with me on holiday. I have small children and I am an over worrier

is there a chain or bolt as secondary security, ie card plus something physical?

If not, get them out of there. Unfortunately booking.com have the absolute worst customer service - impossible to contact anyone. don't get taken in by the scammers on their social media who offer whatsapp links that get you through to someone who pretends to be booking.com then empties your bank account - that was not a fun day...

My mother to this day wouldn’t let me stay in that situation. She would be booking me somewhere else.

We aren’t rich.

Sort it out.

When I worked in hotels (big, well known chain) the doors didn't have additional locks or chains, just the keycard. The reason was in case of an emergency, staff need to be able to open the door. Imagine you're in there and you have a medical emergency but you've double locked the door. That's what we were always told to say to guests who asked

Just test it out. Get one of the girls to stay in the room while the other goes outside and see if they can get in without the electronic key fob. Then you know if there's an actual problem or not

Sounds awful if the room was unclean and the lock doesn’t work.
Is the room other wise ok? Some of the hotel I’ve stayed in with DH have certainly felt less safe than others. just have an off vibe.

Get her to go and buy a door wedge and have some piece of mind. There are some tricks you can do with a coat hanger too if you look on YouTube.

my spidey senses aren’t happy

don't add your anxiety to their holiday, they don't need it. They're together in the room aren't they.

Or book them a better hotel yourself?

I always roll a towel and wedge it at the bottom of the door. Extra security!

I guess that this was a cheap hotel.

I always travel with a plastic wedge so that I can wedge the door shut. Probably not the best in the event of a fire or medical emergency, but I'm happy to take the risk.

I travelled around Europe & Asia as a youngster, and once I came out of the shower to find some hotel worker in my locked room! I'm more concerned about someone letting themselves into my room that I thought it was locked & can easily kick the wedge away from the door in an emergency. Pass keys are always available to staff and not all hotels are careful about security.

Usually there would be a chain or something on the inside, or staff could come in at any time.

Isn't that standard though?

There’s also the rolled up towel trick, OP.

Does your daughter speak Italian?
Has she checked from the other side with one of them in the room?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mengshen-Wireless-Vibration-Triggered-Security/dp/B01MF5FLIY/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?crid=2ZGLMU5R92Q5Z&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.jgnUVeuKmlw-m-bXSWm0x4nbCoQ56Vo22eiJtyvNcgl2H1TC4em15aXEg23IOZ2vwa82gujWg-WSsPD0xzYJ1LLcpcxi1eDKIrDoAgAT5DxZvtwsv6EauwayR8wvStP0DPKMTba5Z32t3wGz6vwRQkOPeNcD1LXuHQ2p4BLkExQ7PlwScucqaRsj6aTGMLtJ780R_yJMyTvdAlLrNYOwzQ.FanA9E4ce-n7r3zlCNl7qJqU4tPUtlilMmEBZ-UJkQE&dib_tag=se&keywords=travel+doorstop&qid=1750089714&sprefix=travel+doors%2Caps%2C104&sr=8-3

This is what she needs. It's a must for a solo female traveller.

Put a chair and their luggage in front of the door so they'll hear if anyone tries to get in. Buy some doorstops for future. Be glad your DD is travelling with a friend and try not to let her know you're anxious. Some countries standards will be lower (or higher) than you are used to.

I stayed in some absolute shit holes as a teen/in my 20’s to save ££ when travelling including some very questionable hostels, but I can understand if they’re personally not feeling safe. Agree on the doorstop, failing that even shoving something against the door. They might feel a lot better tomorrow, bound to see more guests milling about the place. If the hotel has moved to an electronic key system the current internal door lock will be useless anyway.

Your first solo trip away is a huge step for their independence so kindly, try and let her use her own judgement here and step in only if really needed. The high likelihood is they’ll be absolutely fine!

This may be helpful for the future:

https://www.lifesystems.co.uk/products/travel-door-lock?_pos=1&_sid=89ce5a083&_ss=r