The truth about hotel room peepholes

THINK your hotel room is private? Think again. You know that little peephole on the door? Well you should take a closer look at it.

Peering through the peephole

THINK your hotel room is private? Think again.

You know that little peephole on the door, above the handle? Well make sure you take a closer look at it.

If you can see through it easily from the inside, then you’re in the “clear”. However, if you have trouble making out what lies beyond, such any cloudiness, that should ring alarm bells, the BBC reported.

As should a loose peephole viewer that could be easily dismantled.

While it’s a rare occurrence, your peephole may have been tampered with. There may be a reverse camera fitted over the peephole, allowing those on the outside to see in.

I spy ...

Make sure you alert the hotel if you suspect this.

“Check the peepholes in your door, if it’s damaged or it has been tampered with, ask for a different room,” Michael Forrest Jones, CEO of Beechmont Hotels in Winston-Salem, North Carolina told the BBC.

Think this kind of thing just doesn’t happen?

Last year, a man was charged with spying on American ESPN reporter Erin Andrews through the peep hole of her hotel room in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, while she was naked.

Footage taken by Michael David Barrett, from Illinois, through the peephole went viral. He pleaded guilty to one count of stalking, at a Los Angeles court.

ESPN reporter Erin Andrews last year after Michael David Barrett pleaded guilty.