A few months ago, TikToker Charlefise (@charlefise.l) and her husband were in Memphis, Tennessee. Her husband was there for work, and she was there to support him.
He worked night shifts, so she was alone in their hotel room. One night, a scary event occurred that made her rethink everything she knew about hotel safety.
“I used to go to hotels thinking that hotels are safe and nothing could happen while I’m at a hotel until this happened to me,” she said.
“And this video is strictly for the purpose of raising awareness on being safe while you are not at your home.”
On this particular night, it was Friday, and her husband left the room at 7:35 p.m. Before leaving, he reminded her to put the latch and deadbolt on the door. So, she locked the door and lay in bed to watch a movie on her tablet.
At 7:50, someone knocked on the door, and she heard the handle jiggling. Her first thought was that her husband had forgotten something and had come back for it.
Her instincts told her to check her phone. She saw that he hadn’t called or texted her, which was odd if he really had forgotten something.
Her next thought was that it could be a staff member, but that didn’t make much sense either. So, she decided to tiptoe to the door and peek through the peephole to see who it was.
A young man was at the door. He appeared to be in his early twenties and was wearing a gray sweatshirt. He was staring at his phone while banging on the door.
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She thought he could be a food delivery person, but he would’ve had to have been cleared by the hotel front desk. Perhaps he just had the wrong door, but he had been knocking for four minutes already, so he should’ve noticed by then.
He began to get impatient and started knocking louder.
She called the front desk and whispered to the lady that there was a strange man knocking on her door, and asked if she could send security over.
Then, she texted her husband. He called her, and they had a whispered conversation in the bathroom. At that point, the man was still knocking on the door.
Suddenly, the knocking stopped. Another minute passed before security came and knocked on her door. She answered the door with the latch still on.
The security guard said that he had seen a man with the same description running down the hallway when he got off the elevator. He told her that they would check out the situation.
She didn’t sleep the whole night. Her husband told her to call and switch hotel rooms, but no one picked up the phone. The next morning, her husband called and explained their situation.
He was told that all the rooms were booked.
He then asked if they could watch the cameras to figure out where the strange man came from. But apparently, there were no cameras in the entryways, exits, stairwells, or in the hallway.
“Keep in mind, this is a Hilton, and I’m a loyal Hilton member, and I love staying at Hiltons and Marriotts,” she said.
“And this was like the first big disappointment, but the biggest thing for me is the reason why I’m making this video is to raise awareness.”
She is also calling for certain precautions and procedures that hotels should have in place to prevent situations like this from happening again in the future.
By Emily Chan
Emily Chan is a writer who covers lifestyle and news content. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in... More about Emily Chan
