The household item that will make you feel safe in a hotel room.

I recently returned from a holiday around Europe (yes, I fully intend on starting every story with that sentence for at least six weeks), and noticed something I hadn’t before.

When I travelled alone, I found myself feeling unsettled in hotel rooms.

For some reason my mind raced with thoughts about how someone, I don’t know who, but someone, could break into my room in the middle of the night. The people who owned the hotel, for instance. Or cleaners. Or security. Surely there are all kinds of people who have access to every room, regardless of whether it’s locked from the inside.

Well, a user on question-and-answer site Quora clearly had a similar concern, and recently asked others to share the best security device to travel with internationally.

LISTEN: Jessie Stephens recommends the best money you can spend in an airport. Post continues after audio.

Enter my hero: David Klain.

Is that his real name? I can’t be sure. But he is a genius and most importantly – he is very cautious. 

David, you see, travels with one $3 household item that makes him feel safe no matter where he’s staying: a rubber doorstop.

“When staying in a hotel, you can put that doorstop under the door preventing someone from breaking in (the chain on the door will stop no one),” he writes.

"In the case of a terrorist attack or lone gunman/active shooter incident, typically they will go through all rooms but, if they can't get the door open, move on to other rooms before working their way back to the doors that wouldn't open.  This buys you time for you to get away/police to respond/etc."

David Klain. We think the same. Perhaps the most healthy approach for both of us would be to maybe stop worrying about terrorists/gunman holding a siege against the hotel we're staying in, but NO.

A rubber doorstop will keep us all safe. Now I just need to think of a way to keep safe when there's inevitably a tsunami, or an earthquake.

Somehow, I think David Klain will know what to do.