A traveler from Hong Kong—known online by his handle @theworldisntenough—has shared what happened when he was due to catch a flight and found that his passport was stuck in the hotel safe.
In a video shared on TikTok, the traveler shared the amusing yet nerve-wracking moment when his passport became trapped inside a hotel safe that refused to open. The video caption read: "If you need to catch a flight and your passport is in a hotel safe that won't open. It's an intercontinental experience," alongside footage of a hotel worker using a drill to try and get into the jammed safe.
The incident took place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, back in October 2022, just as Asia was slowly emerging from the long shadow of COVID-19 lockdowns.
The pandemic's impact on hospitality was huge, and the poster explained that many hotels in the area were struggling to return to their pre-pandemic standards of service.
"It's actually just one small example of how the hospitality industry struggled to get back to their previous service standards because they were lacking trained staff after most of them closed for over 2 years and had to hire a lot of new, inexperienced staff," @theworldisntenough, who wanted to remain anonymous, told Newsweek.
The mishap that left his passport stuck was apparently due to a battery failure in the safe—a known issue, according to the hotel's staff. "During checkout, they told me they know the problem and I shouldn't have used the safe at all but they obviously forgot to inform people. It's a 5-star hotel, I've been there a few times before and everything was great but that experience... It took them 45 minutes to crack open that safe and then I got my things and all went well," he said.
Fortunately, the traveler made his flight and took the situation in his stride, even finding humor in the moment. "I thought it was just funny at that time and I recorded it. I've been on TikTok for a few months and share some travel experiences there," he said.
Online the video gained more than 70,000 views and commenters shared their reactions: "I thought those safes usually have a key override in case the battery runs out?!" viewer Sam said. While viewer 39stone wrote: "I never understood why ppl put passports in safes, I work with a dozen hotels and never have I heard housekeeping or staff stealing IDs."
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